Brendan Lee
Co-founder & Lead Developer

Brendan is an innovator. He spent two years working as a developer at Clarovista, an Arkansas new media agency, doing rapid prototyping of Mac and iOS software. He has been developing iPhone apps since his senior year in high school in Alma, Arkansas. Brendan competed nationally in several events including the National FBLA leadership conference, Intel International ISEF Science and Engineering Fair and National History Day. His team placed third in the national Microsoft Imagine Cup. While attending the University of Central Arkansas, Brendan and high school friend Christopher Thibault (co-founder of 52apps) developed smartNote for iPad, a note-taking app designed to replace the load of notebooks, etc. that college students carry to class. smartNote has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. Brendan is completing a computer science degree at the University of South Carolina.

Christopher Thibault
Co-founder & Lead Server Architect

Chris is an engineer. He spent two years serving Jarden Applied Materials, a producer of military antennas, where he helped design a product that is now sold commercially. He and Brendan Lee (52apps co-founder) began developing iPhone and iPad apps while in high school in Alma, Arkansas. He earned his eagle scout in 2009 and regularly voluneers with best robitcs. Their smartNote for iPad app, designed to replace the backpack full of notebooks that college students lug around, has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. Chris is completing a mechanical engineering degree.

Stephen A. Leicht
CEO

Steve is a technology entrepreneur. Prior to his role with 52apps, Steve was executive vice president and COO of Collexis Holdings Inc., a developer of knowledge management and discovery software, which was acquired by Reed Elsevier in July 2010. While at Collexis, Steve had a leadership role in more than $18 million in private operational fundraising, two company acquisitions, the company’s initial public offering, the expansion of Collexis into Latin America and Asia and the reorganization of Collexis European operations. He served as a board member and managing director of Collexis B.V. in Geldermalsen, Netherlands and also served on the board of Collexis Chile in Valparaiso, Chile. Prior to joining Collexis, Steve served in roles of continually increasing responsibility with IBM Corporation in sales, business development, emerging technology and general management. Prior to IBM, he started, ran and sold International Telecommunications Distributors, Inc. and served as chairman and CEO of the company. Steve earned a Master’s in Business Administration from The Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business. Steve serves on boards and advisory committees for several companies and industry groups. He lives with his wife and two children in Lexington, South Carolina.

William D. Kirkland
Co-founder Strategy

William D. Kirkland is the founder and managing partner of LK Global Consulting located in Columbia, SC. Mr. Kirkland, as the managing partner of LK Global Consulting is the Entrepreneur in Residence for the University of South Carolina / Columbia Technology Incubator. Prior to founding LK Global Consulting, Mr. Kirkland served as the President & Chief Executive Officer of Collexis Holdings Inc. He managed the successful sell of the company and its subsidiaries to Reed Elsevier in June of 2010 Prior to joining Collexis, Mr. Kirkland spent two decades serving in executive management positions with both IBM and Pfizer. With IBM, he led the Business Consulting Services Sales Division of IBM's Life Sciences Business in the Americas. Mr. Kirkland managed various groups in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Consulting, and Venture Capital relations. Prior to IBM, Mr. Kirkland managed the training group of Pfizer Limited in the United Kingdom and held various leadership positions in sales and training for Pfizer Inc. In addition to maintaining his responsibilities as Managing Partner of LK Global Consulting, Mr. Kirkland serves on the boards of several industry groups and organizations throughout the United States. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina with his wife and 2 children.

Raghav Badiger
VP of Product Management

Raghav is passionate about ideas and building things from scratch. Raghav loves working with entrepreneurs because they are filled with contagious energy and is inspired by startups constantly trying to break the mold. His favorite entrepreneurial moment was realizing he could be an entrepreneur and losing the fear of the unknown. Prior to being involved with some exciting technology-based startups at various capacities Raghav was building enterprise products and leading teams at HP and Symantec. He mashes his tech-savvy mind and business sense together to bring great products to the market. Raghav is also building a thriving startup community through entrepreneurial education and creating strong programs Raghav earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science & Engineering, and later earned an MBA in Technology Entrepreneurship from Babson College and is active with early stage ventures in Boston, Silicon Valley and Austin, TX.