Executive Team

Lois Melbourne, GPHR Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Lois is Aquire’s market and product “co-visionary,” along with her husband and co-founder, Ross Melbourne.

Since the genesis of Aquire in 1994, Lois’ industry expertise and strategic direction have helped transform the company from a fledgling innovator in basic org charts into the leader in workforce planning and management solutions – all without ever seeking or accepting VC funding. Currently, more than 2,500 organizations in 125 countries rely on Aquire solutions to manage data for 10 million working professionals worldwide.

Today, Lois’ dedicated focus is furthering the Aquire vision of supporting customers with HR solutions in the areas of: Mergers and Acquisitions; workforce integration; succession planning and replacement; organization planning; workforce structure management; and workforce analysis. She also drives the industry business development and public recognition for the firm. 

To this end, she is continually broadening her knowledge of the HR industry and expanding her own personal and professional network of HR professionals. She is, for instance, one of an elite group of HR professionals from around the world who are GPHR (Global Professional in Human Resources) certified by The Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI), the leading independent, internationally recognized certifying body for the HR profession. Her GPHR certification reflects the assistance she provides to customers and Aquire's product direction. In addition, Lois was recently elected to a three year position on the International Association for Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM) Board of Directors.

Lois also maintains a strong personal commitment to career education and small business development, as well as a dedication to corporate responsibility as the owner of Aquire. She is a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and the International Association of Human Resource Information Management. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Dallas as part of the pioneering PRAXIS program.

She is a regular blogger on industry issues, frequently speaks at industry and professional events, and has authored articles related to trends in corporate governance, strategic organizational management, and many other issues concerning human resource data integrity and management.

Read Lois's Workforce Management Opinions & Trends blog.

	Ross Melbourne Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder

Ross is the technological driving force behind Aquire’s industry-leading workforce planning and management solutions, OrgPublisher™ and Unifi™.

Since founding the company in 1994 with his wife and “co-visionary,” Lois Melbourne, Ross’ technical knowledge and workforce expertise have led the evolution of Aquire from a fledgling innovator in basic org charts into the leader in workforce planning and management solutions. Today, more than 2,500 organizations in 125 countries rely on Aquire solutions to manage data for 10 million working professionals worldwide.

Although Ross is a software industry veteran and is continually working to advance the technological capabilities of Aquire solutions, he is far from a remote technical innovator. Rather, he nurtures and is motivated by a strong personal understanding of the needs of Aquire customers and a desire to help them overcome their toughest workforce management challenges on a daily basis.

Ross speaks at industry events, conducts annual Aquire technical workshops, and has been published in several leading technology and business publications.

A native of England, Ross has lived in the United States since 1988.

	Tom McKeown President and Chief Operating Officer

Tom leads Aquire’s day-to-day operations, insuring that its workforce planning and management solutions continue to lead the industry.

A 25-year veteran of the software and technology industry, Tom has been with Aquire since 2005, when he was hired as Executive Vice President of Global Sales. Under his direction, he helped the company achieve record revenues, and was subsequently promoted to his present position.

Prior to joining Aquire, Tom was Director of Sales at Citrix Systems where he helped establish their Web-based collaboration and support business as the industry leader. Before that, he served as Vice President of Sales for Quantum Corporation managing their network attached storage business. He has also held management positions at WebEx, Adobe Systems, and 3Com.

Tom is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science.

	Wes Kranz Vice President of Product Strategy & Marketing

Since 2005, Wes has been responsible for the strategic direction, delivery and marketing of Aquire’s industry-leading workforce planning and management solutions.

Prior to joining Aquire, Wes held senior management positions at three venture-backed enterprise software companies where he focused on taking new ideas from concept-to-reality.  He has consistently delivered innovative technology solutions which have earned many accolades, including one start-up solution that was recognized as being one of the nation’s top five “most important” mortgage innovations in 2002.  Earlier in his career he was a management consultant at Arthur Andersen and began his career performing human factors research for companies such as Dell, Apple and Microsoft.

Wes graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in Business focusing on Management Information Systems.

	Andrew Simmons Vice President of International Sales

Andrew is responsible for building Aquire’s international sales and global partnerships.

In addition to 20 years of international sales and marketing experience in the computer software, hardware and enterprise networking industries, Andrew also has strong experience in team management, channel partner development and training. This experience combined with his fluency in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic make him a strong advocate for Aquire’s industry-leading workforce planning and management solutions.

Before joining Aquire in 2005, Andy was Director, Business Partner Development, for Sage Software’s CRM Solutions Division, where he built a global network of more than 500 trained Business Partners in more than 60 countries.

Prior to that, he was International Sales and Marketing Director for MountainGate, a Lockheed Martin Company. There he established and implemented a global Business Alliance Program to select, authorize and support high-caliber systems integrators and partners worldwide. While with Business Alliances, he also increased revenue in the Pacific Rim, Latin American and European/African/Middle Eastern regions from $100K to more than $6 Million.  Revenue from these regions grew from less than 1 percent of Business Alliances’ total sales to more than 45 percent.

Andrew is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Languages & Linguistics and American University’s School of International Service. He has also completed post-graduate programs in International Business at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro and International Contract Management at the University of Virginia.