Tell me about your role at DRD.

I’ll be managing Key Accounts in North America. I will work with medium to large law firms law firms and companies that conduct international business.

You recently came from LexisNexis. What did you do there?

I've been in legal sales for over a decade, and have held a variety of sales roles. For five years, I was in a sales position before I moved into management, managing a team of eight salespeople across three states. In a second sales manager role, I had 11 representatives across seven states and Washington, DC. The core of our sales was subscription-based legal research, as well as software to help law firms run their practice and manage their litigation.

How did you get involved in legal sales?

I do not have a legal background—I have an engineering degree. I started my career as a sales engineer, and went from selling process equipment to manufacturing facilities to sales and marketing of web-based custom software. I was recruited from there to legal sales.

What inspired you to join DRD?

The opportunity—this is something that's never been done before. I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit. To be a part of something, to help grow something, is very exciting. It’s very exciting to be on the ground floor of this project that will be useful worldwide.

Elsewhere, you’ve mentioned that business tools can do more than positively impact client services—they can also positively impact your clients’ personal lives. Will you expand on that?

Any individual only has a limited bandwidth—so, many tools are based on efficiency. Improving someone's efficiency allows them to take on more business, or to be more efficient so they can go home and be with their family, or do what they enjoy. That's what I mean by impact to personal lives—they can do other things by accomplishing their work in an efficient manner.

Do you see DRD's data benefitting their clients in this way?

Law firms and businesses have never had this data before. They've had to rely on their own experience or seek input from others as they make decisions, and that can be time consuming. With DRD’s tools, they can be more confident in what they're delivering to their clients, as well as improve their efficiencies.

What do you enjoy about sales?

I enjoy being able to meet and work with a variety of people and businesses. Sales are the front lines of business interaction. I'm always preaching this to my children—it's a sow and reap field. Hard work is rewarded. It also helps fuel my entrepreneurial spirit, so it's a great fit for me all around.

What is most important to you about DRD’s product?

It's never been available. That, and the confidentiality of the data. One of the reasons this data has never been around is because no one wanted to divulge confidential information from international arbitration and mediation. We've been able to safeguard that concern and still deliver very useful, aggregated information.