Leadership Team

Executive Team

Jim Marshall

President and CEO

Jim joined Spectrum K12 School Solutions in March 2007 as President and CEO. He brings more than 30 years of enterprise-focused experience leading high technology companies to profitability and market growth. Prior to Spectrum K12, he assumed the responsibilities of CEO at Agentis Software in February 2005 and led funding rounds, a management buyout and several large new sales transactions.

Prior to Agentis, Jim was Vice President of Named Accounts at FileNet. In this position he created, deployed and managed a Mid-Market plan and unit for the Corporation.

Prior to that assignment, Jim was Vice President of Apple’s US Education Division, leading the overall Education effort at Apple. This unit of Apple accounted for approximately 25% of the company’s annual revenues. 

Jim has also held executive positions at Informix, Oracle Corporation, NeoMedia Technologies, Tandem Computers and Burroughs. He has extensive experience in helping technology companies build and develop accomplished management, sales, marketing, professional services and channels teams.

He is an active member of the Cobb County Education Foundation, where he works to help raise funds and drive awareness programs for the counties school system. Jim is also a Director for the Florida Council on Economic Education which is charted with teaching fundamental finance and business concept to High School Students.

During his career, he has been invited to give numerous keynote presentations, educational talks, speeches and seminars. Jim has received public recognition from the governors of Michigan, Maine and Florida for his work in those states and has been recognized by the Georgia state school system for his contributions.

He holds a B.A. in Management and General Sciences from the University of South Florida.

Todd Frager

Chief Financial Officer

Todd joined Spectrum K12 in May 2008 as CFO, bringing 20 years of financial experience to the company. Prior to joining Spectrum K12 Frager joined Catalyst in February 2006 as its chief financial officer. Before joining Catalyst, Mr. Frager spent six years with The Cedar Group, a $115 million PeopleSoft implementer. He served as its chief financial officer from 2002 to 2006, preceded by positions as director of financial operations and controller. Prior to joining The Cedar Group, Mr. Frager served as chief financial officer for I/Tech Service and as controller – corporate management for ADC Telecommunications. He previously served as a controller for numerous other firms, including BridgeStreet Accommodations International and Mid-Atlantic Realty Management, Inc.

During his career, Todd has been active in the educational community. He was appointed to the Carroll County Public Schools Education Foundation. He has been very active within the PTA serving as Treasurer, Vice-President and President for the past six years. He is currently the VP of the Carroll County Council of PTAs. Frager also serves as Chairman of the Kid’s for Computers Campaign, which has raised $40,000 to build new computer labs in elementary schools.

Mr. Frager obtained his bachelor’s degree in finance and economics from James Madison University. He earned a certificate of accounting from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Baltimore.

Steve Benfield

CTO and SVP Product Strategy

Steve brings more than 20 years experience as a proven technology visionary, evangelist, architect, and educator. Steve joined Spectrum K12 School Solutions in June 2007 and is responsible for product management, technology innovation, and cultivating strategic partnerships. Most recently, Steve served as CTO of Agentis Software which developed advanced artificial intelligence-based process management systems. Before Agentis, Steve helped establish ClearNova as an early player in the Web 2.0 application development space which led to a successful acquisition by Infor. Steve was also Chief Technology Officer of SilverStream a publicly traded pioneer of Java Application Servers. Steve established SilverStream as a visionary in Web Services and SOA Business Processing resulting in a successful acquisition by Novell. Prior to Silverstream, Steve served in executive management positions for several start-up ventures & IT consultancies.

Scott Cary

Chief Marketing Officer

Scott joined Spectrum K12 in March of 2006.  He has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and product management in the technology industry, and has led over 50 product launches. Prior to joining Spectrum K12, Scott founded the Product Management Institute, where for 10 years he specialized in providing organizations with the expertise necessary to transform product management into product performance. Scott has also led marketing, product management and business unit teams at various software companies including Legent, Best Software and British Telecom. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Scott holds a B.S. in Systems Engineering with a concentration in management information systems.

Ed Garnett

Senior Vice President Sales

Ed has over 14 years of Professional Services and Project Management experience in the technology sector. Ed joined Spectrum K12 in September 2005 and leads the services organization with a focus on customer satisfaction and streamlined implementations of the ENCORE product line. Prior to joining Spectrum, Ed served as a Division Manager at SAIC, a leading systems, solutions and technical services company, where he focused on both State and Federal government contracts. In addition, Ed has led services teams at Advance PCS, CommerceRoute and CMSI. He is PMP certified and holds a B.S. in Commerce & Engineering from Drexel University and an MBA from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School.

Malcolm Cohron

Senior Vice President, Field Services and Support

Malcolm joined Spectrum K12 in September 2009 as Senior Vice President, Field Services and Support. Malcolm brings a 25 year track record in building and growing large, highly profitable sales & field services organizations. He has sold over $1billion in product sales and services for leading software companies including; Oracle, Open Text, and Vitria.

Prior to Spectrum K12, Malcolm spent 5 years driving performance across sales, services and solutions business units with Open Text as Global Senior Vice President. He was executive sponsor for a number of acquisitions advancing market entry into the U.S. Public Sector. Malcolm was a key field executive in contributing to Open Text’s annual revenue growth of over $700m, an 80% increase over his leadership period. Prior to Open Text, Malcolm spent 9 years with Oracle serving in both sales and consulting executive capacities. He was Group Vice President over U.S. Communications & Utilities, GVP over Industry Strategic Accounts, VP for U.S. Mid-market Field Services, and Southeast Consulting GM. Each appointment drove significant market entry, penetration, revenue and margin growth; from $8m to over $250m in revenues.

Malcolm has degrees in both Business Administration and Computer Science from Seattle City University. He sits on a number of advisory boards for early start-up/venture firms in the southeast. Active in his community, Malcolm serves on several outreach and habitat for humanity programs in Atlanta and in Costa Rica. 

Carmi Paris

Senior Vice President of Corporate Development

Carmi is a life-time educator and learner who began her career as a science teacher, high school track coach and curriculum adviser for text book adoptions.  From teaching in the classroom, Carmi expanded her pedagogical experience through publishing. As co-founder of Review Publishing Inc., she managed the editing division which published journals, magazines, books and educational textbooks. During this time, she was awarded the prestigious World Monuments Philanthropy Grant from American Express for successfully promoting ecological responsible cultural studies through responsible tourism to endangered world monument sites on five continents.

Carmi continued in educational publishing where she developed curriculum for at-risk youths, creating a program called I AM, WE ARE that helped minority students celebrate their ethnicity and family heritage.

Carmi joined Riverdeep as National Director of Corporate Partnerships in 2000 and then moved to SchoolNet in 2005, a Performance Management Solutions company, to become Director of Corporate Development.

Senior Management Team

Ram Venkataraman

Vice President of Research and Development

Ram has over 15 years of experience in technology innovation and technology management. Prior to going Spectrum K12 Ram was the Director Of Product Management at Red Hat where he was responsible for the complete product lifecycle of the core middleware products that included JBoss AS, Hibernate, JBoss Seam and JBoss Portal. Before Red Hat he was the co-founder and CTO at ClearNova where he was responsible for providing the overall technology vision and direction for the companies product lines. ClearNova was as an early player in the Web 2.0 application development space and had some key innovations which led to a successful acquisition by Infor. Prior to joining ClearNova, Ram lead numerous teams that delivered mission critical applications for Fortune 500 clients as a consultant for Unisys and BravePoint. Ram is a graduate of University of Bombay with a degree in Electronics Engineering.

Gerry Stefhon

Vice President of Solutions

Gerry has been part of the Spectrum K12 team for three years and is currently leading the Educational Solutions Group. Prior to joining the realm of Educational Technology, he worked in the public school setting over 10 years championing for children with special needs as a Teacher of the Deaf and Elementary School Principal. Gerry has worked as a Bilingual Inclusion Teacher, certified interpreter for the Deaf, a Facilitated IEP trainer, and has given numerous presentations, educationally related talks, and conducted many workshops across the nation. Gerry has worked in Educational Technology for the last 5 years and most recently served as the Director of Professional Services for TetraData Corporation. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas Tech University and holds a MEd (Mid-Management) from the University of North Texas.