Company: Executive Team
Ted Cocheu
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Ted Cocheu launched Altus Learning Systems in 1998. As Chief Executive Officer in charge of strategic and technical direction, he brings decades of leadership, management and industry insight to the company. His innovative thinking and disciplined execution have been driving forces behind the company’s sustained success.
Prior to founding Altus Learning Systems, Cocheu co-founded gForce Systems . The company was later acquired by Docent and then SumTotal. Prior to this, he was principal consultant for Performance Technologies, where he led reengineering projects for Cisco's next generation software release process and Octel's product development lifecycle prior to its acquisition by Lucent.
Cocheu founded the Seagate Institute of Technology and pioneered techniques used in transferring technical knowledge and skills to Far East manufacturing operations. He built his corporate learning capabilities while serving as the director of corporate learning at Conner Peripherals, director of corporate operations training at Unisys, and manager of manufacturing training at Memorex. Cocheu also wrote the popular book, Making Quality Happen: How Training Can Turn Strategy into Real Improvement, published by Jossey-Bass.
Cocheu has authored and published dozens of industry articles and has presented at numerous national and international conferences as a thought leader on workplace learning strategy and technology. He serves on the Board of the eLearning Forum and was past President of the American Society for Training and Development, Silicon Valley chapter. Cocheu has been a guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, National University and National Technological University. He earned his BA and MA from the University of California.
Sebastian Grady
Chief Operating Officer
Sebastian Grady is Chief Operating Officer of Altus Learning Systems where he's responsible for overall business development and customer satisfaction management. Grady brings nearly two decades of management and IT experience to the company, with a successful track record in customer service, enterprise software sales, rapid organizational growth and corporate leadership.
Prior to joining Altus, Grady was President and Chief Operating Officer of Saba Software (NASDAQ: SABA), a leading Human Capital Management software company, where he grew revenue from $18M to $54M during his first year. As Vice President and General Manager of the Customer Sales Division at PeopleSoft, recently acquired by Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL), he grew a $75M business to more than $600M in a four-year period. Grady's leadership, direction and oversight helped produce the company's fastest-growing, largest business unit. As Vice President of Customer Services at PeopleSoft, he achieved the highest customer satisfaction rating in the Enterprise Software Industry.
Grady began his career with Andersen Consulting in 1987, directing large information systems projects for Fortune 500 clients in the fast-paced telecommunications industry. He earned his BS in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Ron Barbaree
Vice President, Eastern Region Sales
Ron Barbaree is Vice President, Eastern Region Sales for Altus Learning Systems where he is responsible for U.S. East Coast management and sales. Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer and founder of SynerCap LLC, a software and management consulting organization. Prior to forming SynerCap, Barbaree was Vice President & General Manager of Maintenance and Financing at PeopleSoft, recently acquired by Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) , an enterprise resource planning software developer. He was responsible for worldwide maintenance revenue of $500M and customer leasing of $270M. Barbaree left PeopleSoft in April of 1999 to form his own firm SynerCap, LLC.
From February 1995 to September 1997 he was Vice President & General Manager of North East operations at PeopleSoft. From June 1986 to February 1995, Barbaree held various executive sales management positions at Oracle Corp, including national responsibility for sales and operations to banks, brokerage and insurance organizations. From April 1983 to June 1986, he was a regional manager at Computer Corporation of America. Prior to 1983 Barbaree held management positions at STSC, TCC and APL Services. From 1967 to 1969 he was a member of the software research group at Bell Labs in Princeton, N.J.
Barbaree was a member of the compensation committee at Oracle Corp., and was on the pricing committee of both Oracle Corp and PeopleSoft. He is a graduate of Trenton Technical Institute and attended business management sessions at The University of Virginia Darden School of Business.