Copanion Management Team

The Copanion Management team is built on applying proven technology, accounting, and start-up experience to lead the industry in tax document automation.

Steven K. Ladd, CEO and Founder

Steven Ladd is co-founder and CEO of Copanion. Earlier in his career, he founded InterChip Systems, Inc., an electronics product development company. InterChip developed its own custom electronic design automation software, which was spun off and sold to Mentor Graphics. The company was subsequently purchased by Honeywell.

Prior to founding Copanion, Ladd was chairman of Systematic Accounting, providing financial and investment management services to businesses in New England before its sale in 2008. He has also acted as a consultant to technology businesses and has managed sales, manufacturing and design operations at venture-backed and Fortune-500 sponsored start-ups.

Ladd holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.

Dr. Depankar Neogi, COO and Founder

Dr. Neogi leads Development and Operations for the GruntWorx family of products. He has significant experience in bringing pioneering new products to market and establishing new technology platforms and standards. Before joining Copanion, Dr. Neogi led technology development, operations and marketing efforts for three successful startups: Winphoria (acquired by Motorola), Webspective (acquired by Inktomi, now Yahoo!) and Boston Technology (acquired by Comverse). He graduated with high honors from the Indian Institute of Technology, and holds an MBA from Columbia University and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts.

Edward V. Jennings, Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing

Ed Jennings leads the Sales and Marketing team responsible for bringing the Copanion products to tax professionals. Before joining Copanion, Ed was Vice President of Marketing at PTC, where he was responsible for all communication vehicles and go-to-market programs in multiple vertical markets. He was previously General Manager at Into Networks, where he led the expansion of the company's technology into the financial services market. He has held senior positions at AT&T, Qwest Communications and Broderbund Software. A graduate of Boston College, Jennings holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mark A. Robinson, Vice President Business Development and Founder

Mark Robinson is a CPA.CITP with 25 years experience in public practice. Before joining Copanion, he was President of Systematic Accounting, a firm providing accounting, payroll and bookkeeping and tax services to businesses throughout New England. He also owned and operated his own accounting firm for more than ten years, and served as President of Ploughshare Trust. Robinson graduated from Babson College with a BA in Accounting.

Dr. Venu Govindaraju, Chief Technical Advisor

Copanion's technical direction is being set by Dr. Venu Govindaraju, Chief Technical Advisor. In a research career spanning over 20 years, he has made significant contributions to many areas of pattern recognition, such as document analysis and biometrics. Dr. Govindaraju's seminal work in handwriting recognition was at the core of the first handwritten address interpretation system used by the US Postal Service that now sorts over 18 billion envelopes every year. He is currently Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. He graduated with high honors from the Indian Institute of Technology, and holds a PhD from the University at Buffalo.