About the Reviewer

John M. Petrone is a veteran technology leader and innovator who has over 20 years of experience in leading software development and technical operations at organizations ranging in size and scope from early-stage start-ups to public companies and large system integrators. He's passionate about the strategic application of leading-edge technologies to solve real-world problems.

John is currently the CTO of LaunchPad Central, a SaaS platform company offering end-to-end solutions that help organizations innovate more efficiently and accelerate time to market new products. He runs the the engineering and product groups, where he heads the ongoing design, development, and operation of their SaaS products that enable high throughput innovation at scale.

Previously, John was the first CTO of Zignal Labs, a leader in delivering data-driven insights from real-time media monitoring and big data analytics. He recruited the original engineering team and designed, architected, and led the building of a real-time analytics platform. This platform ingests tens of millions of news stories, blog entries, and social media posts every day.

Prior to Zignal, John served as the SVP and CTO of Autobytel Inc (ABTL) from 2003-2008 and again from 2010-2012. He is the awarding-winning pioneer of online car buying and automotive marketing services, and he has led all technology activities and initiatives, including new product development, technical operations, and integration of acquired technologies. He was selected as one of the Premier 100 IT Leaders of 2006 by Computerworld Magazine.

John was also EVP and CTO of Preview Travel, Inc. from 1995 to 1999, where he built the team and platform and led them through a successful IPO in November 1997. Prior to Preview, he held senior technology positions at Oracle, Lotus Consulting, Price Waterhouse, and Andersen Consulting. John attended the University of Maryland, where he received a BS degree in aerospace engineering. He is also a graduate of the Executive Education Program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.