Matt MacKay

CEO / Founder

Matt is the Founder and CEO of Surge. Under his leadership and direction, the company has grown into a leading software consulting and technology firm providing professional software development services to clients ranging from hot startups to Fortune 500 companies. Matt has extensive, hands-on experience with every aspect of the software development lifecycle, having worked as a designer, developer, project manager, and tester during his career. Prior to founding Surge, Matt was the Founder and CTO of RemedyMD, a healthcare software company. While at RemedyMD, he built one of the first web-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Electronic Health Record systems, used by physicians and hospitals around the country, including the Cleveland Clinic. He also filed a technology patent pertaining to dynamically expandable database schemas. Matt is a seasoned software executive, having worked in key software engineering leadership roles at PACCAR, an international truck manufacturer, and TenFold, a software consulting and technology company that went public during his tenure. Matt received a BS degree in Business Management / Information Systems from Brigham Young University.

Jim Hyde

EVP / COO

Jim is responsible for much of the day-to-day management of Surge, including development, product design, project management, QA/Testing, and IT. Jim brings to the position over 20 years of industry experience in engineering, operations, and personnel management. His primary goal is ensuring that customers get high-value software solutions that exceed their expectations, while keeping Surge technologically nimble and staff-supportive. Prior to Surge, Jim held high-ranking operations positions at Remedy Informatics (formerly RemedyMD), Overstock.com, Tenfold, and In-Store Broadcasting Network. In those roles he nurtured firms through intense high-revenue-growth periods, new product development, and staff expansion, not to mention a few IPO’s. Jim’s varied outdoor interests include hiking, biking, motorcycling, skiing, scuba diving, sailing, and aviation. Jim holds engineering degrees from Stanford (Ph.D., B.S.) and MIT (M.S.).

Bruce Yerman

Chief of Staff

As Chief of Staff, Bruce understands that quality people are the essence of Surge’s success. He connects incredible talent to the company and then to its many projects. Bruce brings with him extensive human resource experience and an international background having worked in or directed schools in the United States, El Salvador, Mexico, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and New Zealand. He has a knack for recognizing strengths and building strong teams. Much like Indiana Jones, Bruce has climbed the highest mountains, explored the deepest jungles and crawled through Mayan pyramids. He’s paddle-boarded the blue waters of the Pacific, and even completed 7 of the 9 “Great Walks” of New Zealand, all while devouring the tastiest street food along the way. During lunch, you will likely find him at the local taco truck. He compensates for his over eating by biking, hiking, and swimming. Bruce received his BA in Spanish from Brigham Young University, an MA in Teaching from Stanford University, and an EdD in Policy, Planning, and Administration from the University of Minnesota. He is married to Sarah, and they have five daughters.

Nately Desisto

Director of Project Management

As Director of Project Management, Nately oversees internal and external process improvements throughout the organization while managing relationships with current and future clients. She also assumes the responsibility of project manager when needed. With over 13 years of experience in the field, Nately has worn many hats. Coding tools for a variety of departments has given her the unique opportunity to experience every role in the software development process, including user, designer, developer and tester. In the end, her professional passion towards process improvement led her to project management. Nately is a big advocate of Agile development process and is also a Certified Scrum Master. She has trained teams and implemented the Agile/scrum methodology for a number of software development teams before joining Surge. Prior to Surge, Nately worked at Henry Schein. Her experience there allowed her to improve processes, create tools to increase productivity and accuracy, as well as organize and implement a BETA committee for software releases. Nately enjoys traveling, movies and theatre, and as a native Wyomingite is always up for a good steak. She loves all kinds of animals and takes on small crochet and knitting projects as her way of de-stressing after a long day’s work.

Joshua Lintz

VP Business Development

Formerly a client of Surge, Josh is responsible for customer acquisition and growth. He is a seasoned software professional—experienced with taking products from ideation to execution, and managing everything in between. As a client, Josh partnered with our software engineers to develop a web-based application featuring custom maps and visual listings, enabling sales teams to sell with confidence. Location-based analytics empowered management teams to measure trends and optimize inventory and pricing strategies—serving as a robust profit lever. In another Surge project, Josh led a team of developers to build a web-based product configurator—helping end-users visualize and sell personalized products. Josh studied economics and public policy at Southern Methodist University.

Tyler Schroeder

Director of Development

Tyler’s responsibilities at Surge include managing the development of client products and expanding and improving the Surge Platform. He is responsible for training new developers, architecting product solutions, and leading the development teams throughout the development lifecycle. Prior to joining Surge, Tyler worked as a Senior Developer and Team Lead for The Markets LLC, a regional grocery store chain. There he developed applications for managing inventory, product loss, and cashier performance. In addition, Tyler has worked as a freelance developer in high demand for over 6 years, developing websites and web applications for a variety of industries. He is a highly regarded .NET programmer and application architect. Tyler graduated from Western Washington University with a major in Management Information Systems and a minor in Economics.

Julia Gilinets

VP of Customer Success

Julia is the VP of Customer Success at Surge. She believes that the customer is at the center of everything she does, and dedicates her efforts to ensure Surge is bringing maximum value and success to our clients' lives. She is a seasoned tech industry executive, having led global teams and large scale projects at Silicon Valley companies such as Findly, MoPub (Twitter) and Palm. Her ability to understand and foresee clients' technical needs is rooted in her years as a Software Engineer and her Computer Science and Math degrees from UC Berkeley. She's passionate about solving problems, languages, dance and travel.

Garrett Maudsley

Director of Design

Garrett directs Surge’s product design efforts. His experience gives him unique qualifications for this role, which combines the need to analyze and understand business requirements and translate them into easy to use and visually appealing user interface designs. Garrett comes to Surge with 10 years of software experience – including time at industry leaders Siebel and Oracle, as well as smaller startup companies like RemedyMD. He has countless hours of software design and implementation experience and has worked as a freelance web designer and developer for a variety of clients. Garrett graduated from Brigham Young University with a BS in Zoology and a minor in Art and Design.

Donovan Stevens

Director of Staffing

Donovan is a highly skilled and dedicated executive offering an impressive 20-year background in the design, implementation and management of software systems and production processes within a variety of industries. Executive level leadership in driving cost centers and revenue-generating projects. Proven record of success in employing operational standards and methodologies to solve real business problems. Outstanding communication, organization and interpersonal skills, written and verbal. Demonstrated ability to overcome cultural, geographic and organizational challenges

George Mauer

Director of Development

Developer, Writer, Speaker, Teacher, and Mentor; George has been developing software and organizing developer communities since before the turn of the century. As Director of Developer, George leads and grows Surge's large developer community, and runs the interviewing and mentoring programs. Before leading the Development team at Surge, George was a developer at Surge. He architected and developed more than 10 successful projects for Surge working with and leading teams large and small. He currently still works as a full time developer at Surge, and in his spare time George enjoys sketch and improv comedy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and MMA.

John Davenport

Director of Marketing

John has worn many hats throughout his career as an engineer, business consultant, product manager, technology startup veteran, enterprise architect and operations manager. He is a firm believer that technology can and will rapidly improve our planet. At Surge John relies on his experience in delivery and his knowledge of technology to find new ways to reach our customers. Prior to joining Surge John has served in executive and management roles at TenFold Corp, 10X Design LLC, Devon Way, Remedy Informatics, and Allstate Corporation.

Jonathan Martin

Director of IT

As Director of IT for Surge, Jonathan keeps busy around the clock to ensure that all hardware and software are current and running at optimal performance. For over 10 years Jonathan has worked in systems administration with extensive experience in spearheading the management, design, development, and implementation of enterprise-wide systems/network solutions. Prior to Surge, Jonathan served as a tier 3 data engineer for Hunt Telecommunications. He specialized in managing SAN and virtualization infrastructures for both the company and several high-end clients. Jonathan also worked LITE (Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise), a 3-D immersive visualization and high-performance computing resource center, hosting clients in commercial industry, government and university sectors. When he isn’t busy working at his desk or chasing his 4-month-old daughter, Jonathan explores the great outdoors almost any way he can. His favorite hobbies include: fishing, hunting, hiking/backpacking, kayaking, scuba diving and golf. Jonathan received a BS in Computer Science from the University of Louisiana.

Eric Hufford

Director of QA

Eric is a seasoned Consulting and Professional Services Executive experienced in information technology software systems. An organizational leader, Eric is skilled in all facets of system development from scope definition, plan design and development through implementation, installation and launch. Eric has worked in the technology and software sector of businesses such as AT&T, Schlumberger and GE Healthcare. With a knack for utilizing analytical skills, Eric translates complex concepts into logical solutions that exceed client objectives. Creatively balances client commitments with internal organizational improvements by continual review of the implementation lifecycle to optimize overall profitability. On top of all this, Eric is genuinely a happy-go-lucky guy with a positive attitude, voiceable opinion, and infectious character.

Melissa Garcia

Executive Administrator

Melissa is an Executive Assistant and Controller at Surge. Melissa manages the administrative tasks for the company and assists the Executive Team. Corporate budgets, payroll, scheduling, accounts payable and receivable are just a few of the many hats she wears at Surge. Melissa has an extensive knowledge in bookkeeping as well as financial planning. She’s a natural problem solver, critical thinker, and also has a knack for adaptability. Prior to Surge, Melissa worked with Dr. Michele Shover, a retired Political Science professor at California State University, Chico and local historian of Chico, CA. While there, she worked as Personal Assistant and Executive Trust Officer. She administered both the Michele Shover Trust and the Flynn-Shover Trust. She was also responsible for managing their historic property, the A.H. Chapman House also known as the Little Chapman Mansion. In her spare time, Melissa enjoys spending time with family and shopping for others. Pretty much anything that involves spending is of interest to her – both personally and professionally. Melissa is a graduate of California State University, Chico.