Executive Team

Ralph Clark has been leading SoundThinking (formerly ShotSpotter) since 2010 as President and CEO. Clark led the transformation of ShotSpotter to a SaaS-based business model, ultimately taking the company public in 2017. The company has since expanded to become a leading platform-based next-generation public safety solutions company engaged with over 250 public safety agencies globally.

Ralph has more than 30 years of corporate, financial and organizational leadership. Prior to SoundThinking, he was the President and CEO of GuardianEdge Technologies Inc. where he drove a successful exit with its acquisition by Symantec. Earlier in his career, he worked for IBM as a large systems marketing representative and manager. After business school, he served as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.

Ralph received the 2019 EY Entrepreneur of The Year (r) Award for Northern California and was recognized as a 2019 Most Admired CEO by the San Francisco Business Times.

Community service is a priority. He is a former board member and chair of Pacific Community Ventures, former board member and chair of the Oakland Boys and Girls Club, former trustee and Vice-Chair of the Oakland Museum of California, and former trustee of the American Conservatory Theater.

Ralph currently serves on the Board of Directors of TriNet (TNET), a leading public company PEO firm, where he chairs the Nomination and Governance Committee. He is also a Board member of Glowforge, a Seattle-based venture capital-backed connected 3D laser printing company. Additionally, Ralph serves on Harvard Business School’s California Advisory Board.

He holds a B.S. in economics from the University of the Pacific and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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Alan R. Stewart serves as Chief Financial Officer bringing a strong background in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance to the company. Prior to joining SoundThinking, Stewart served as Managing Director of RA Capital Advisors, LLC, a private investment bank specializing in mergers and acquisitions, private financings and restructurings.  From 2004 to 2014, he served as Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Development Officer of Epsilon Systems Solutions, Inc.

Since 2008, Mr. Stewart has served as President of FIT Advisors, LLC, a boutique consulting firm that offers temporary CFO services and served clients from start-up ventures to large private companies in vertical industries spanning government contracting, software, retail, healthcare IT, banking and Internet applications.

Stewart was selected as San Diego Business Journal’s CFO of the Year in 2007 and again in 2013. Both awards were in the large private business category. Prior to his business career, Stewart served over ten years as a submarine nuclear engineer in the United States Navy. He received his B.S. in Oceanography, with distinction, from the U.S. Naval Academy and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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Golzadeh has more than 18 years of leadership in operations, software implementation and professional services in a variety of industries. She has created, led and scaled high-performing teams and implemented effective, efficient, repeatable and consistent service delivery and operational processes.

Prior to joining SoundThinking, Golzadeh was in charge of Operations and Professional Services for CentralSquare Technologies (formerly TriTech Software Systems), a leader in Public Safety software. The company delivers complex enterprise, mission critical solutions to thousands of law enforcement, fire and EMS agencies worldwide. During her 14 year tenure, she led consistent professional services revenue growth, drove operational excellence, continuous process improvement and high customer satisfaction while the Operations group experienced 10-fold growth.

Prior to CentralSquare, Golzadeh held leadership roles in banking, manufacturing, software, and higher education.

Golzadeh has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Software Engineering, and an M.B.A.

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Paul Ames, a 25-year technology veteran, joins SoundThinking as Senior Vice President, Products and Technology, to lead the product development, software, hardware and operational engineering teams.  Before SoundThinking, he founded Deckchair Software LLC, to conceive, develop and market consumer facing mobile apps.

At Premier Retail Networks (PRN), a division of Technicolor, Ames served as Vice President of Product Development, responsible for driving development of a $100MM yearly revenue video advertising platform.

Paul started his career in the UK and has held senior technology leaderships roles across a broad range of industries including communications, financial, professional information and media. He received his Computer Science education at the Polytechnic of South Wales and post graduate studies in Electronic Sound at University College, Cardiff.

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Erin Edwards brings over 25 years of technology sales, marketing, operations, and executive leadership experience to SoundThinking. Today, Erin leads the SoundThinking sales and sales operations teams, globally. Before joining SoundThinking, she served as Vice President of Sales for Everbridge, a critical event management software solution selling to both public safety and Enterprise level organizations.

Prior to that, she served as Vice President of Sales at Appriss Retail. Erin started her career at Verizon, holding several finance leadership management roles.

Erin holds a B.A. in Business Administration from California State University, Fullerton and an M.B.A. from University of California, Irvine.

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After nearly 27 years in federal law enforcement, Tom joined SoundThinking to help promote and support the integrated use of the company’s vast data holdings and comprehensive public safety solutions. He leads a team of experienced professionals committed to supporting robust and effective application of SoundThinking’s products in investigations, forensics, and litigation.

Tom is a licensed attorney. He retired from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES). He spent his last year as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Over the course of his career, he enforced a wide range of federal criminal laws, especially related to firearms and violent crime. He worked undercover extensively and frequently testified in federal court as both an expert witness and a fact witness. He played an integral role in promoting the U.S. Department of Justice’s adoption and use of Crime Gun Intelligence tools and tactics.

He has a BA in Criminal Justice from Marshall University in Huntington, WV; an MS in Criminal Justice from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY; and a JD from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Tom is dedicated to helping make this a safer world.

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Larry S. Jackson is a solution focused executive with more than 25 years of experience working with companies to optimize their operations by implementing new technology platforms, digital capabilities, and data analytics. He leads SoundThinking’s world-class Customer Success and Field Engineering team helping customers get maximum value from SoundThinking’s solutions from initial service deployment through customer onboarding with best practices and community engagement.

Prior to joining SoundThinking, Larry held leadership positions with IBM Consulting and Accenture. His business transformation efforts have included customer experience strategy development, application solution design, business process automation and change management to ensure end user adoption.

In addition, Larry is involved in local bay area community activities including serving as a Board Member for Stanford Medical Partners.

Larry is graduate of Stanford University and earned an MBA from Atlanta University. He is an avid sports enthusiast who enjoys cycling and rooting for his favorite Bay Area teams.

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Sam Klepper leads product strategy and M&A activity for SoundThinking. Sam has been with the company since 2018 and was previously SVP, Marketing & Product Strategy for SoundThinking. Sam has 25 years of marketing, product and business leadership experience working for innovative, fast-growing technology companies.

Klepper was previously VP of Sales and Marketing at EnerAllies, a SaaS-centric IoT energy management platform. He was President and CEO of Lavante, a leader in SaaS supplier management solutions. As CMO for Redwood Systems, a lighting controls and IoT provider, he helped the company grow revenues 15x over two years. As CMO at eMeter, a smart grid enterprise software company, Klepper led the creation of a new product line and transformed company positioning prior to a successful acquisition by Siemens. Prior to eMeter, Klepper was a GM at Microsoft responsible for a $500M portfolio of online subscription businesses. He was also part of the team that grew WebTV Networks recurring revenues from $0 to $200M. At Intuit, he developed the strategy and led product teams to enter the SMB accounting (QuickBooks) and payroll markets that today generate over $2B in revenues. He began his career with Bain & Company.

Klepper has a bachelor’s degree in History and Science magna cum laude from Harvard University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

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Gregg Makuch (“May-kish”) leads marketing for SoundThinking. Gregg is a results-oriented marketing executive with over 25 years of marketing, product and business leadership experience working for innovative, fast-growing technology companies. His experience ranges from startups to global, billion-dollar organizations.

Previously, he had CMO and marketing leadership roles at multiple tech startups. Most recently, he was part of a senior management team relaunching an HRTech company, resulting in growing the customer base 7X (633%) culminating in a successful $5.4MM funding round. Makuch was also VP of Marketing at Entomo, a channel management SaaS company, where he drove a 2x increase in traffic, 100% increase in active prospects and 3X growth in closure rates, in addition to developing strategic partnerships. He also had executive and leadership positions at Widemile (acquired by WebTrends), aQuantive (acquired by Microsoft), and RealNetworks, where he launched the company’s first SaaS offering in the streaming media space. Before RealNetworks, he was a brand manager at Kraft, where he achieved brand-of-the-year honors.

Makuch also has broad change management and strategic consulting experience from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte Consulting.

Makuch has a B.S.E in Industrial Engineering magna cum laude from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

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Anne Mueller joined SoundThinking in 2023 to lead the Human Resources and Talent team. With over 20 years of Human Resources expertise, Anne specializes in building and cultivating dynamic, high-performing teams within fast-paced and evolving organizations.

Prior to joining SoundThinking, Anne served as Senior Vice President, Head of People at Forge Global (NYSE: FRGE), where she played a key role in expanding the company’s headcount by 11 times over four years, was instrumental in taking the company public, and led the first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) efforts. Prior to Forge Global, Anne held HR leadership roles at Pensco Trust, Conifer Securities, and mFoundry, Inc. Collaborating closely with leadership, she shaped thriving cultures and led comprehensive HR M&A efforts. Anne’s career began in recruitment, which has granted her unique insights into the talent acquisition landscape.

Anne’s leadership style is defined by her commitment to fostering strong, inclusive cultures, while prioritizing the employee experience. The core of her approach to building top-performing teams is to provide guidance, inspiration, and continuous development.

Anne holds a B.A. in Organizational Communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has lived in the Bay Area for 25 years and she loves spending time at the beach with her family, friends, and dog.

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Mark has always been a champion for supplier diversity! He served as AT&T’s executive liaison to several minority owned business groups before retiring in 2020. Per the request of AT&T’s C-suite office, including the CEO, he supported AT&T’s $1B commitment to increase spending with minority businesses. This commitment led to Mark’s desire to form MFP Consulting, LLC, focused on connecting talented diverse suppliers with Fortune 500 corporate supply chain leaders.

Mark joined AT&T in 1980 and held countless leadership positions during his expansive career including domestic and international roles in Global Ordering, Managed Services, Business Billing, Consumer Markets, Industry Markets, Small & Medium Business Sales and Network Services. As Vice President of Business and Ordering Excellence Mark was responsible for leading customer care operations across the globe. During his time in the Chief Data Office Mark led the Operations and Program team end-to-end management of a $1B transformation portfolio that delivered positive business outcomes which reduced costs and grew revenue. In 2019, Mark was appointed Vice President of Sales Excellence, Convention Program Team. He executed AT&T’s plan to deliver products and services (i.e. Wireline, Mobility, FirstNet and 5G) to the 2020 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. In addition to his leadership in the business, Mark was one of AT&T’s most visible advocates for diversity and inclusion.

Mark has always been most passionate about his work in the Sales and Service environments as a leader caring for customers, delivering results, and developing future leaders. Throughout his career, Mark has been engaged in sponsoring employee resource groups including, Community Network, Women of AT&T and LEAGUE. He has mentored countless employees and was a recipient of the President’s Service Award for volunteerism. Mark and his wife have been members of the Tocqueville Society for countless years. Mark currently serves on the National Board of StepUp and Oak Cliff YMCA in Dallas, Tx. He is an active member of Sigma PI Phi Fraternity inc.

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