HOME ABOUT US SERVICES BLOG CONTACT US ABOUT US KSM Technology Partners’ mission is to deliver maximum returns on your technology investment and human capital. Our select team of consultants blends deep domain expertise with real-world experience leading and executing complex software development projects. We use and recommend cutting-edge tools, frameworks, and methodologies to give you a competitive advantage. We know what works and when, and we help you distinguish hype from reality. Our insights are informed by decades of hands-on success delivering innovative solutions to mission-critical business problems. KSM professionals have delivered large, multifaceted, mission-critical applications for top-tier pharmaceutical, biotechnology, aerospace/defense, health services, telecommunications, and software companies. Our breadth of experience affords us unique insights into the variety of ways which custom software projects succeed. We put our experience to work for you, delivering innovative solutions on time and under budget. OUR HISTORY AND VALUES KSM’s founders met in the late 1990’s, when we were all working for a large international consultancy. We bonded over our passion for building software that solved complex, interesting problems far off the radar of commercial packaged solutions. We continually challenge one another, in a spirit of cooperative competition, to expand our repertoires, all to the benefit of our customers. We founded KSM in 2003 to allow us to pursue our professional interests, and deliver value to our customers in ways that large commodified consultancies cannot. Our corporate values are embodied in our motto: Innovate. Execute. Empower. INNOVATE We cultivate deep expertise in our customers' business domain, and blend that with a passion for cutting-edge technology. Thus armed, we identify strategies that yield the highest value for our customers for the least cost. EXECUTE We are makers at heart, and maintain the development infrastructure, tooling, and training programs to continuously refine our ability to convert ideas into working, robust solutions. EMPOWER We equip our customers with the tools and expertise needed to maintain and evolve the solutions we deliver, with as little or as much of our continued support as they need. MANAGEMENT TEAM Mike Harnish, CEO Somewhere between an undergraduate degree in philosophy and a planned stint in graduate school, Mike’s professional interests turned to consulting, systems integration, and software development. After twelve years split between Accenture, First Consulting Group, and a high-tech start-up, Mike co-founded KSM as a vehicle to deliver high-value expertise-based consulting services to clients in the life sciences industries. In recent years, Mike led KSM into the utilities industry. An unrepentant generalist, Mike has delivered client/server solutions on Windows, web-based applications on a number of Java servers, and integration solutions from full-stack ESBs to minimalist REST frameworks. His current interests include the Scala programming language, cloud computing, and leveraging technology to build the agile company. Mike earned that BA in Philosophy with honors from Swarthmore College. Steve Caggiano, COO Steve started his career as a rocket scientist with GE Aerospace, where his interests and expertise turned to relational database design and all things Oracle. After spending a handful of years with First Consulting Group, Steve co-founded KSM. With 25+ years’ experience in information technology, Steve excels at partnering with clients, understanding their business needs, and delivering the best technical solution. The epitome and champion of KSM’s emphasis on deep domain expertise, Steve has delivered solutions that target all phases of the pharmaceutical drug discovery and development pipeline. Steve received his undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering with Distinction from the University of Virginia in 1988. He completed a Masters in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994. Emil “Bud” Lefkof, CTO Bud has a bold entrepreneurial streak, and a gift for elevating the play of his coworkers and clients. He has been a consultant and software developer for 20 years, and has delivered bespoke solutions in the drug discovery, manufacturing control, and drug safety domains. In recent years, Bud has focused on providing systems integration services to the utility industry. Bud enjoys building highly-scalable Java web application and web service solutions with the Spring framework and Apache Tomcat, Commons, and CXF. He built a mini-practice within KSM helping clients tame their build processes and achieve continuous integration with Hudson, Nexus, and Apache Maven. An accomplished mobile application developer, Bud published six iPhone applications to the Apple AppStore, and four to the Android Market. He graduated from Bloomsburg University with a degree in Computer and Information Science. Dean Zimmerman, VP Since his first high school programming class in Microsoft Basic, Dean has been forever fascinated by the challenge of software development. His professional career started as a software engineer in the pharmaceutical industry followed by a stint in real-time traffic information systems and more recently in electric grid high-availability software. His expertise and passion revolves around full cycle development of Java based applications using Spring and J2EE technology. Outside of work, he is an avid road cyclist and has recently competed in several triathlons. Dean graduated summa cum laude from Millersville University with a BS degree in computer science. Mike Richardson, VP Mike has more than 20 years of experience in software development, including over 15 years in consulting. Mike has used C, C++, Java, JEE, and Oracle to design and build solutions in defense, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and transportation. He is experienced with object oriented design, automated testing, and all phases of the development lifecycle. Mike graduated with honors from Virginia Tech with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering. He is a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. Jeff Kearney, VP Sales Jeff has more than 20 years of international leadership experience in the content development, training and IT markets. He has started and turned around businesses in Europe and the U.S. He has lived in Germany and the U.K. Jeff founded XMoLogy, LLC and was the chief conceptor behind ETx, a tool that publishes wiring diagrams directly from engineering information. Jeff is active in the Boy Scouts of America and serves as Scoutmaster for local and regional youth leadership development courses. Jeff also serves as a volunteer operations director for a Chester County home repair ministry. Jeff has a BS in Physics and a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering. He is a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.