Who We Are
Leadership
The majority of the Athens Group leadership team has worked together for over fifteen years. As our retail practice has grown we have recruited additional leaders and consultants with decades of retail and technology industry experience. This ensures we have the right people with the right skill sets to help you achieve your goals. Just a few of our leaders are profiled here.
Mike Haney, Chief Executive Officer
Mark Cooper, Chief Technology Officer
Christine Lowry, Chief Marketing Officer
Paul Patterson, Vice President of Solution Delivery
Greg Vaughn, Managing Partner – Retail Solutions
Mohsin Shad, Senior Delivery Manager – Retail
Mike Haney, Chief Executive Officer
Mike has been CEO of Athens Group since its inception in 1998, and has over 20 years of executive leadership experience in the consulting and technology industries. Prior to co-founding Athens Group, Mike was President of Sterling Information Group, which was recognized as an Inc. 500 growth company in 1993 and successfully sold in 1997. Before entering the consulting profession in 1991, Mike was the Chief Information Officer of PC software utility pioneer Fifth Generation Systems. At Fifth Generation, Mike led the creation of the CRM, distribution and financial systems that enabled the company’s explosive four-year revenue growth from $12M to $50M. Mike has also served in operations, technology, and financial management roles in the retail, oil & gas, and banking industries.
Mike’s strong leadership background enables him to effectively guide our business strategy and manage the evolution of our firm. When he was a CIO, Mike found great value in using a handful of “trusted advisor” consulting firms to complement his internal teams on mission-critical projects requiring specialized industry knowledge. He wants all of our customers to have that same positive experience and to view Athens Group consultants as their most trusted technology advisors. Mike assembled the founding team of Athens Group in 1998, and he continues to have a hands-on role in recruiting and retaining the highly qualified consultants and thought leaders that comprise the Athens Group team today.
Mark Cooper, Chief Technology Officer
Mark is a co-founder and CTO of our retail practice. He has nineteen years of experience in business and information technology. Prior to Athens Group he was vice president of Sterling Information Group where he advised clients on technology strategy and led large-scale enterprise projects. Previously Mark was a senior consultant at Andersen Consulting and a software engineer for IBM. He is recognized as a thought leader on Business Process Management (BPM), with published articles in CIO magazine.
Mark continues to serve as a strategic advisor and leader of large-scale change initiatives for retailers such as Whole Foods Market, REI, Dell Computer, Lacks Furniture, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He also performs technology due-diligence assessments for private equity investors and M&A clients.
Mark is a high-energy, motivated, results and customer-focused professional. With a background of proven success in driving successful change, he brings customers an entrepreneurial mix of visionary, analytical and implementation skills.
Christine Lowry, Chief Marketing Officer
Christine has over 10 years of merchandising and store operations experience at the Hudson’s Bay Company, and more than 20 years of retail technology experience, including both enterprise and store applications. She joined Athens Group in January of 2007. Prior to joining Athens Group Christine created the industry leading store systems brand - 360Commerce. When the brand was acquired by Oracle in 2006 she led the marketing operations integration with Oracle Retail marketing. Previously she held director and managerial roles at leading retail ISVs including STS (now NSB), JDA, and Gateway Data Sciences/Innova.
Christine has deep expertise in corporate marketing, product marketing, product management, business process consulting, project management and training. She has designed merchandising, CRM and store solutions and has managed the implementations of merchandising, allocation, planning and distribution center solutions.
Christine is a quality-oriented and customer-focused intrapreneur with a track record of creating, marketing and delivering solutions that provide competitive advantage. In addition to her role as CMO, she brings her retail and software experience to key engagements.
Paul Patterson, Vice President of Solution Delivery
Paul has over 20 years experience in the software industry. In addition to practice leadership, he provides consulting services in the areas of business process analysis, project management and training. Paul joined Athens Group in 2001 from Intelligent Technologies Corporation, where he led a group using data mining and Internet technologies to implement business intelligence and data warehousing solutions, including warranty fraud detection. Previously, he was a technical leader at a variety of software product and service companies, including Digatex (acquired by Global Beverage Group) which provides direct store delivery solutions.
In 2004 Paul was instrumental in the decision to add BPM capability to our retail practice because he saw the potential of this technology to help retailers significantly improve operations. Paul is responsible for defining our retail solution and service offerings, building practice capability and coordinating delivery of services to all retail clients. In addition, Paul is certified as an instructor for a leading BPM software vendor and has participated in the development of their training curriculum. Paul has provided advisory and training services to such diverse retailers as Dell, Lacks Furniture Stores, Whole Foods Market, and Harris Teeter.
Paul takes a practical and results-oriented approach to our customer projects. With a solid technical and analytical background and experience in a variety of technologies and industries, Paul brings our customers an ability to rapidly formulate innovative project approaches tailored specifically to their unique needs.
Greg Vaughn, Managing Partner – Retail Solutions
Greg has over 25 years experience in retail and retail technology. His experience includes serving as CIO for softlines retailer C.R. Anthony, specialty retailer Waccamaw Pottery and grocery retailer Brookshire Brothers. On the vendor side, Greg has held executive positions including CEO, President and Vice President of leading software, hardware and consulting companies providing products and services to the retail industry. Greg joined Athens Group in 2005 from Khimetrics, where as Senior Director – Global Services, he oversaw the application of price strategy, optimization, management and execution for tier-1 retailers. Previously, he was a senior executive with Pricer, Price Waterhouse and JDA Software Group.
Greg has applied technology in solving retail challenges across every area of a retail organization including merchandising, logistics, store operations and finance. Also, due to his broad background he understands the unique differences and challenges faced by softlines, hardlines, grocery, and specialty retail segments. His “been there - done it” background and proven record of driving positive change provides a strong resource for our retail client base.
Mohsin Shad, Senior Delivery Manager – Retail
Mohsin has 20 years of retail technology and systems implementation experience, spanning store systems, enterprise applications and business intelligence. He joined Athens Group in March 2006 and has worked previously in senior managerial roles with retail technology leaders including ICL, JDA, Retex Consulting and Accenture.
Mohsin has deep expertise in the areas of merchandising applications, master data management, business intelligence, systems integration and project management. He has helped design and implement customized merchandising and analytics solutions for apparel, grocery and hard-goods retailers. In addition to his role in managing implementations, Mohsin assists clients with business process improvement, and solution evaluation and selection efforts.
Mohsin’s broad and deep retail technology expertise enables him to bring best practices to every engagement, reducing overall cost and increasing the speed-to-benefit of each project.