Management Team

Wade Gerten – Chief Executive Officer

Wade is 8thBridge’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Wade was most recently the Vice President of Product Strategy for Oracle Retail. Best Buy, Walmart, Tesco, Nordstrom, Carrefour and over 200 other leading global retailers accelerated their business growth with merchandise optimization solutions developed under Wade’s leadership during his 10 year tenure at Retek and Oracle Retail. Wade helped grow Retek from 20 employees in 1995 to the largest retail-specific enterprise software company. Retek was acquired by Oracle in 2005 for $630 million.

Jamie Thingelstad – Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer

Jamie plays a dual role at 8thBridge as our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Previously, Jamie was the CTO of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, the consumer division of Dow Jones & Company, and CTO of MarketWatch. Jamie was also the founding CTO of BigCharts. BigCharts was a pioneer in delivering real-time financial information via the web.

Jon Kubo – Chief Product Officer

Jon is the Chief Product Officer at 8thBridge where he is responsible for product strategy. Prior to 8thBridge, he spent 6 years as the CIO of Wet Seal, Inc., parent company of Wet Seal and Arden B. During this time, he also served as head of Ecommerce for both brands, growing online revenue by over 10 times. Prior to Wet Seal, Inc., he was an EVP and Chief Administrative Officer of FAO Schwarz. While at FAO Schwarz he led the launch of their online presence, catalog, and relaunch of their retail stores. In June of 2011, Mr. Kubo was awarded The 2011 RIS Retail CIO of the Year for implementing mobile and social strategies for Wet Seal. Mr. Kubo was also named the CIO of the Year in 2010 by Oracle.

Dr. Linda Whitaker – Chief Science Officer

As one of the leading practitioners of retail science in the country, Linda provides the research, innovation and advanced science for 8thBridge solutions. Linda is focusing most of her time on our Brand Interest Graph (BIG) Data Analytics capabilities. Previous to 8thBridge, Linda was the Chief Product Officer at Quantum Retail Technology, a software company that delivers innovative merchandise optimization solutions to the retail industry. Linda co-founded Quantum in 2004, and is the originator of the science in Quantum’s software platform, Q. Prior to that, Linda was an integral part of the science development and product management at Retek Information Systems, working in the areas of replenishment, logistics, pricing, promotion, and consumer behavior.

Mike Hrabe – Chief Revenue Officer

As Chief Revenue Officer for 8thBridge, Mike leads all customer facing activity including sales, marketing, and client delivery and success. Prior to 8th Bridge, Mike co-founded Quantum Retail, a software company that delivers innovative merchandise optimization solutions to the retail industry. As Vice President of Sales and Marketing from its inception, Mike led all revenue generating activities at Quantum and grew the company from a start up to among the fastest growing and profitable software companies in the industry with over 100 employees. Marquise tier one retailers such as Guitar Center, The Children’s Place, Marks and Spencer, and Nordstrom improved their businesses with Quantum’s Big Data capabilities. Prior to that, Mike held sales and marketing leadership roles at Sun Microsystems, Retek (now Oracle Retail), and Lawson Software.