Keynote Presentations

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Jim Schaper, Chairman and CEO

As Infor's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jim Schaper is responsible for setting corporate strategy, building the team and the capabilities to execute on that strategy, and ensuring Infor's investments continue to drive growth, superior performance and customer satisfaction.

He credits 30 years of experience in the technology industry with teaching him how to manage a team and how to grow a firm internationally. He also observed, in some cases, how not to run a software company. "I've seen firms mired in the past, and fail to optimize performance because they couldn't or wouldn't make decisions quickly. Infor is different. We make the tough decisions based on what is best for our customers, and then we move on."

Chairman and CEO since Infor's creation in 2002, Schaper saw a void from a customer's perspective that Infor could fill in an increasingly fractured market. "Large horizontal providers with financial stability offer solutions that are too generic for a lot of vertical markets, while the niche providers offer more specific solutions but lack global distribution and long-term financial wherewithal," he says. "The Infor strategy is to fill this obvious chasm. We are a software company that, through acquisition and our own innovative development, provides the best of both worlds to enterprising customers-proven, business specific solutions with industry experience built in, backed by a vendor with global distribution capabilities and stability." Winner of a 1974 National Championship when he competed for the University of South Carolina's track team, Schaper has always enjoyed competition. There has been none greater than leading Infor to achieve what many said was impossible in a market historically dominated by several large ERP providers. "Competition breeds success, and by employing a unique business model that enables us to identify, acquire and integrate solutions that offer better value to our customers, we have built something successful and sustainable-a company that is here to stay," he says. "And we've done it faster than anyone thought we could. In fact, today we have more customers than our two largest competitors combined."

Schaper's experience includes serving as Chairman, President and CEO of Primis, Inc., the market leader in web-based property information services to the financial services industry. He also has held executive management positions at Per-Se Technologies, Dun and Bradstreet Software and Banyan Systems.

Jeff Ralyea, Vice President, Product Management

As vice president of product management, Jeff Ralyea is responsible for aligning Infor's solution development investment with market opportunities and sales objectives of all business units. 

Ralyea brings to the executive team nearly 20 years of experience in directing and managing product strategy. "My goal is to engage in dialogue with our customers to identify and integrate solutions that effectively address their top business challenges or better position their organizations to take advantage of new business opportunities using a suite of Infor solutions," he comments.

Joining Infor in 2005 as global vice president of product marketing when the company acquired MAPICS, he focused on driving Infor's product and partner investment strategy and identifying market and business opportunities. While at MAPICS, Ralyea served as director of solutions management, responsible for re-engineering nine product suites and recommending strategies for product redesign.

Graduating from Clarkson University in management information systems, Ralyea began his career as a consultant with Arthur Anderson, LLP, where he provided strategic direction in product design, implementation, and system integration, as well as expertise in various business solutions. Ralyea also held several positions at Frontstep, formerly Symix Systems, which was acquired by MAPICS. As Director of e-Partner and Hosting Services, he managed new e-business product offerings including market strategy, pricing, and positioning. Ralyea also spearheaded the integration of core development, implementation, and support operations.