Board of Directors
William Schneider, President
President, Teocali Energy, LLC
William Schneider is the CEO and President of Teocali Energy, LLC, a private oil and gas exploration and production company based in Denver. Prior to founding Teocali Energy, Mr. Schneider was President of Venoco, Inc. where he was actively involved in the company’s growth and played an integral role taking the company public. Mr. Schneider spent over 10 years in investment banking, including as a managing director at Harris Nesbitt, an investment bank, focused on mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Schneider also held various investment banking positions with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Smith Barney. Mr. Schneider has over forty years of experience including investment banking, corporate finance, worldwide business development, engineering, and corporate planning. Mr. Schneider presently serves on the Boards of Iron Oil and Edge Energy Wattenberg, and is an Operating Partner of Edge Natural Resources, a private equity provider based in Dallas.
In addition to ColoradoFIRST, Mr. Schneider’s community involvements have included co-chair of the Energy Panel for WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development), founding member of the Advisory Board of the Global Energy Management program at the University of Colorado, and a member of the Venoco Community Partnership. Mr. Schneider has a degree in Petroleum Engineering from Colorado School of Mines and an MBA in finance from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management. Mr. Schneider has served on the Board of Directors for Colorado FIRST since April 2007.
Rodger Stewart, Chief Growth Officer
Retired CEO
Rodger Stewart, with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado, has over 30 years’ experience in the cardiac surgery device industry since starting with COBE Cardiovascular, Inc. in 1977 and most recently completed 18 months as CEO of a venture backed medical device startup in Israel. Over his career he has held positions of increasing responsibility in engineering, marketing, sales and business development. Mr. Stewart has been awarded six US patents and is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Colorado. In the 8 years prior to retirement he held the positions of President and CEO for UltraShape, Inc., CEO of Carbomedics, Inc., and President and CEO of COBE Cardiovascular, Inc. Mr. Stewart retired in July of 2008 and is currently the President of EXPAND Beyond, Inc., a Colorado 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing adaptive waterskiing to individuals living with physical disabilities. Mr. Stewart has served on the Board of Directors for Colorado FIRST since June 2009.
Scott Springer, Team Growth Officer
Retired Principal of CEC Early College, DPS
Mr. Springer worked for Denver Public Schools for 34 years as a teacher, assistant principal, Executive Director for the Office of College and Career ready, Director of Career and Technical Education for the district, and recently retired as principal of CEC Early College. Mr. Springer helped develop the CEC Early College of Denver when he was first appointed principal in 2005, which is now one on the most successful high schools in the Denver Public Schools, serving 88% first generation college-bound students, enrolling 70% of their graduate in two year or four year program. Every student at CEC Early College graduates with an average of 18 college credits. This most recent semester, over 500 students enrolled in college course work with a 93% pass rate.
When Mr. Springer retired in 2017 he became an educational consultant. His main client is Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, a program of the Smidt Foundation, where he advises on the advancement of skilled trades in U.S. high schools. In addition, Mr. Springer consults for Early and Middle Colleges around the country coaching principals and advising on curriculum to help prepare students for their post-secondary education. Mr. Springer has served on the Board of Directors for Colorado FIRST since June 2017.
Marsha Williams, Development Director
Retired CIO, E-470 Public Highway Authority
Marsha Williams has over 25 years of executive experience across a diverse set of industries including manufacturing, medical device, pharmaceutical, transportation, energy, criminal justice, and various private equity environments. Ms. Williams has served as the Vice President and Chief Information Officer of several publicly held companies working in both the United States and Europe including Sorin Group S.p.A, COBE Cardiovascular, Gambro Renal Care, and BI Incorporated. Additionally, she was a partner at Tatum LLC which is a management and advisory services firm assisting companies with strategic challenges that can occur at various stages of the business life cycle.
Throughout her career Marsha has pursued the innovative use of technology to drive business growth. This resulted in the introduction of numerous market changing technologies related to intelligent vehicle identification and capture, mobile offender monitoring and biometric verification, configurable surgical supplies, and revenue stream automation for fossil fuel extraction.
Marsha has been actively involved in FIRST since 2005, was awarded Volunteer of the Year by Colorado FIRST in 2013, and began serving on the Colorado FIRST Board of Directors in October 2017. Marsha has served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Information Management, and the Advisory Board of United Launch Alliance and Warren Occupation Technical Center (aka Warren Tech). She has also received recognition as the Business and Profession Women’s Woman of the Year and finalist in the Denver Business Journal CIO of the Year award. Ms. Williams holds a Master’s Degree in Technology Management from University of Denver and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science.
Terry Olkin, Secretary
SVP & Chief Architect, Workday, Inc.
Terry Olkin currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Architect at Workday, Inc. Previously, he was Vice President of Emerging Technologies at The Toro Company which had acquired his commercial snow-clearing and turf-mowing robotics company, Left Hand Robotics, of which he was a co-founder and the CEO. Before starting Left Hand Robotics, Mr. Olkin was a Fellow at Workday where he advised on architecture. Prior to Workday, Mr. Olkin co-founded and was CTO at GridCraft, Inc., which was acquired by Workday. Before GridCraft, Mr. Olkin was Senior Vice President and CTO of Oracle’s Global Business Units. In this role, he advised on M&A, architecture, and product-related issues across all seven of Oracle’s vertical industry product lines. Previously while at Oracle, he initiated, designed, and led a team to build Oracle’s collaboration and social suite of products. Prior to that, he worked on key areas of Oracle’s flagship database product.
Since graduating MIT in 1988 (Computer Science and Engineering), he has worked at both large technology companies (Oracle, Microsoft, Workday, Toro) and small start-ups, including three that he co-founded. His experience encompasses everything from software and robotics engineering, project management, executive management, entrepreneurship, raising money, building business plans, setting vision, delivering products to market, interacting with customers, and public speaking.
Mr. Olkin is a named inventor on over 36 patents. He was also instrumental in several common technology standards including the ANSI SQL database language, Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) interface, and the Java Messaging Service (JMS). He has also taught Enterprise Data Security at the University of Colorado – Boulder, AP Computer Science at Niwot High School, and is a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
Mr. Olkin has been an active member of the FIRST community for more than 10 years as a mentor, advisor, volunteer, and judge. He is a founder and currently serves as President of the GEAR Alliance, a Colorado 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that promotes STEM to approximately 200 K-12 students each year in the Boulder/Longmont community through partnership with FIRST. Mr. Olkin has served on the Board of Directors for Colorado FIRST since December 2021.
Tony English, Executive Director
Mechanical Engineer, Neaera Consulting Group
Tony English is an owner of Neaera Consulting, a company he started in 2004, specializing in connected and automated vehicle projects. Tony graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a recognized expert in security, networking, system engineering, and robotics. Tony is also a veteran of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Tony first stepped into FIRST in 2006 by starting a FIRST Lego League team for his three children. The team eventually progressed to a FIRST Robotics Competition team and has since been competing at this level for the past ten years as Team 4499 ‘The Highlanders’. Tony’s expertise in engineering and robotics has inspired over 150 students to progress through The Highlanders, most going to college for STEM-related degrees. He was nationally recognized as an inspiration in FIRST by receiving the Woody Flowers Finalist Award in 2015.
Most recently, Tony joined the Colorado FIRST Board of Directors. Tony was inspired to join the Board to entice more students to join FIRST programs in the state. Tony has served on the Board of Directors for Colorado FIRST since May 2022.
Leslie Karnauskas, Treasurer
Retired CFO, BMGI
Leslie Karnauskas is a retired financial executive with over twenty-five years of experience in multiple industries including medical device, manufacturing, distribution, equipment service, and consulting. She retired in 2014 as CFO of BMGI, a consulting firm specializing in Lean Six Sigma implementations. Ms. Karnauskas held senior accounting positions at Datex-Ohmeda, COBE Cardiovascular and Gambro Renal Care where she was involved in strategic planning, business consolidation efforts to improve efficiency, financial analysis and budgeting projects, and multiple ERP system implementations. She has a BSBA in Finance from the University of Minnesota, an MBA in Accounting from the University of Colorado – Denver and is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).
Ms. Karnauskas has served on various professional and nonprofit organization boards over the last thirty years including the Mile High Chapter of the American Red Cross, Institute of Management Accountants, Financial Executives International, Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, Business and Professional Women, and the Women’s Bean Project. She has been the volunteer CFO for Colorado FIRST since 2011 and a judge for the Colorado Regional FRC tournament since 2010. Ms. Karnauskas was honored with the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award by Colorado FIRST in 2021. Ms. Karnauskas has served on the Board of Directors for Colorado FIRST since January 2023.
Melodie Reagan, Chief Marketing Officer
CEO, Crazy Good Marketing
Melodie is the CEO and Founder of i2i Workforce (i2i) and Crazy Good
Marketing (CGM). i2i is an innovative national contract staffing, recruitment,
and training & coaching firm serving companies and organizations of all
sizes. CGM is a cutting-edge marketing agency of employees and freelancers that
work with small to mid-sized businesses to drive more customers and revenues,
faster.
Melodie leads from experience, having personally worked with numerous
clients to create top performing, 21st century workforces, build top brands and
has assumed interim leadership roles in sales, marketing, and product
management. Most recently, she worked for ProfitStreams as the CM&PO.
ProfitStreams provided closed-loop marketing SaaS that helped Merchants to find
new customers and bring them back in again.
Prior to launching i2 and then CGM, Melodie served as SVP of Global
Marketing and Sales Operations and SVP of Transport Services for Level 3
Communications (now CenturyLink); was a global practice leader & industry
analyst with Telechoice; and held marketing and product executive leadership
positions with WilTel, Sprint, and US West.
She has managed businesses with profit and loss accountability up to
$1B+ and operating budgets >$35 million; developed, launched and managed
>175 products & services; led & implemented comprehensive marketing
strategies spanning consumer, small to large businesses, nonprofits and
government; sold through direct & indirect channels; drove eCRM &
systems development; and managed technical and non-technical staffs throughout
the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Melodie graduated magna cum laude with a BSBA in Marketing, Management
Information Systems and Management Science from the University of Missouri St.
Louis.
Melodie served as a Board Director for Association for Corporate Growth,
Colorado Companies to Watch (CCTW), TiE Rockies, and Women Business Executives,
and is currently a Legacy Board Director for CCTW. She been a judge for two
years for Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and judge facilitator for
10+ years for CCTW. She is a keynote speaker and event moderator, and has
participated in numerous strategy sessions, conferences, and workshops. Melodie
is passionate about business, marketing, and sales, and building top performing
cultures and teams. Ms. Reagan has
served on the Board of Directors for Colorado FIRST since November 2023.