Corporate biographies
Quark led the revolution in desktop publishing and its leaders bring solid experience and innovation to this industry-leading company. The team of Quark® executives is leading the charge towards custom publishing in a multi-channel environment.
- Linda Chase – acting president and senior vice president of enterprise products
- Peter Jensen – general counsel
- Jürgen Kurz – senior vice president, Desktop business unit
- Richard Pasewark – vice president of sales (Americas) and marketing
- Bryan Penny – corporate controller
- Gyan Prakash – vice president of sales for Asia, Middle East, and Africa
- Adriaan Roosen – senior vice president, customer service and operations
- Paul Schmitt – vice president, product development
- Matthew Wallis – senior vice president of sales and services, Europe
Linda Chase – acting president and senior vice president of enterprise products
Linda Chase is the acting president of Quark, and the senior vice president of enterprise product development. She is responsible for product strategy, development, and finance for the QuarkCommerce business unit. Chase joined Quark in 1998 and has held a range of financial, general management, and product development positions.
She brings more than 20 years of experience as a financial officer for catalog publishing and direct marketing companies. Prior to coming to Quark, she was vice president of finance at Shop At Home, a catalog/direct marketing company. She has also worked as vice president/controller of Leman Publications (a subsidiary of Rodale Press), and controller of Gordon’s Books.
Chase holds a B.A. from University of Northern Colorado and an M.B.A. from Regis University. She is a member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the Rocky Mountain Direct Marketing Association, the DMA’s International Council, eWomen Network, and the Denver Software Organization. Chase is based in Denver, Colorado.
Peter Jensen – general counsel
Peter Jensen is responsible for all legal matters for the company. He brings to Quark more than 16 years of broad corporate legal experience, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and domestic and international strategic development and distribution partnerships. Before joining Quark, Jensen was the senior corporate and securities counsel for Samsonite Corporation, was vice president and general counsel for Colorado MEDtech, Inc., a publicly-held medical software and products company, and was a partner at Chrisman, Bynum & Johnson (now Faegre & Benson LLP). He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and has a bachelor of arts in geology from The Colorado College in Colorado Springs.
Jürgen Kurz – senior vice president, Desktop business unit
As senior vice president of Quark’s Desktop business unit, Jürgen Kurz oversees worldwide product management and development of Quark’s award-winning desktop publishing products, including Quark’s flagship product QuarkXPress. Kurz joined quark in 1997 and has played a key role in steering the evolution of the company’s award-winning suite of desktop, workgroup, and enterprise publishing software in a variety of executive positions. Before joining Quark in 1997, Kurz spent over five years in the German publishing industry as a pioneer in the development of numerous print and electronic products. Kurz holds a media design degree from the Graphic Arts School, Munich, Germany, and a product marketing degree (Werbekaufmann) from the Industrie und Handelskammer (IHK) in Munich, Germany. Kurz is based in Denver, Colorado.
Richard Pasewark – vice president of sales (Americas) and marketing
Richard Pasewark manages all sales and marketing for the Americas. Pasewark comes to Quark with a career focused on business development, including the creation, implementation, and support of channel and direct sales efforts, and with expertise in managing marketing programs and pre-sales departments. With more than 15 years of experience in technology sales, Pasewark’s most recent post was as vice president of sales and marketing at Xyvision Enterprise Solutions, a software and services company focused on XML content management, publishing, and delivery solutions. In addition, He spent more than 7 years in sales and business development for Frame Technology, the original developers of FrameMaker. Pasewark holds a B.A. from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA. Pasewark has offices in both New York and Boston.
Bryan Penny – corporate controller
Bryan Penny is responsible for managing the global accounting organization and has more than 15 years of financial experience in financial reporting; accounting; international accounting; operational accounting; Sarbanes-Oxley documentation; and systems development, integration, and management. Before joining Quark in 2004, Penny served as the director of accounting and assistant controller at First Data Corporation, held a variety of controller and accounting positions at Edison Brothers Stores, Inc., and was staff accountant at Baird, Kurtz and Dobson CPAs. Penny has a master's degree in business administration from Webster University, St. Louis, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Penny is a licensed CPA and has professional affiliations with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the University of Illinois Alumni Association, and Sigma Pi fraternity.
Gyan Prakash – vice president of sales for Asia, Middle East, and Africa
Gyan Prakash is responsible for all Quark professional services and sales activities for all of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Prakash joined Quark in 2001 as head of sales for India. Within a year, he was given responsibility for sales in the Middle East and assumed leadership of Quark sales in the Pacific Rim and Africa regions in 2003. In addition, Prakash now has responsibility for Japan as well. Prakash holds a bachelor of technology degree in computer science and technology from Bangalore University and an M.B.A. in marketing from Amity Business School in New Delhi. Prakash is based at the company’s Asian headquarters in Mohali, India.
Adriaan Roosen – senior vice president, customer service and operations
Roosen is responsible Quark's customer service, technical support, and product fulfillment operations in the US, Europe and Asia. He has hands-on experience in call center operations, supply chain management and software distribution. He also brings 15 years of broad business experience in senior positions in print, ad production, graphic arts, and direct marketing. Roosen's distinguished career includes tenures at Vertis Europe (London), Modus Media (Dublin), and RR Donnelley (The Netherlands). He also served at Quark from 1994 to 1999 as its Managing Director for Europe. Mr. Roosen is a Dutch national and he holds a degree in international law from Tilburg University (The Netherlands).
Paul Schmitt – vice president, product development
Paul Schmitt leads Quark’s software architecture team. His role includes ensuring consistent and focused development across Quark products, identifying and developing key concepts and technologies, and expanding Quark’s intellectual property. Schmitt joined Quark in December 2005 from A Lowly Apprentice Production Inc. (ALAP), a leading provider of extended technology for the publishing and graphic design industries. Under his leadership as founder and president, ALAP developed popular imaging, impositioning, and productivity tools. Schmitt has more than 18 years of experience in software development, having served as a director of sales and marketing for Pre-Press Technologies, a color separation software developer, and as vice president with DK&A, a developer of imposition software. Schmitt also served as business development manager with Quark in the late 1980s. Schmitt holds a degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Matthew Wallis – senior vice president of sales and services, Europe
Matthew Wallis oversees all sales and services responsibilities for Europe. Wallis was formerly vice president for global sales and marketing at Blue Order Ltd. His career of more than 20 years spans both major corporations, such as Hewlett-Packard and Motorola, and startups, such as Blue Order and Artesia Technologies. His focus has been on the development of sales and service organizations, covering a broad range of vertical markets. Wallis began his career with Hewlett-Packard after obtaining a degree in Control Engineering from Sheffield Polytechnic. He also holds a Diploma in Strategic Business from the Institute of Directors (IoD), of which he is also a member. Wallis is based in London.
