Management Team

Eric is a veteran entrepreneur and experienced manager of strategy, people, and process. Founding MindCorps in 1996, Eric created a profitable, high-growth software consultancy that served the Internet and Fortune 500 markets before its acquisition by Amazon.com. Joining Amazon.com, Eric managed business development for the Amazon.com Commerce Network, working on the deal team for Amazon's first major brick-and-mortar partnership. Eric founded the software product firm Emercis Corporation in 1998 to provide e-commerce infrastructure tools to enterprise businesses. Emercis was acquired by Impressa, Inc. in 2000. Serving as Director of Ubarter.com, Eric helped facilitate the sale of the business to Network Commerce in 2000 for $45 million. Eric is currently Chairman and CEO of Mercent Corporation. In addition, he serves as chair of Seattle-based Morse Best Innovation, a technical marketing agency serving clients such as Microsoft, Lexmark, and WRQ, and as director of Bellevue-based ITEX, a technology company that provides a business-to-business payment system for non-cash transactions. Eric is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University and a member of the SPU Entrepreneurial Studies Council and Society of Fellows.

Frank Kochenash is an expert in digital strategy and operations and structuring engagement teams to deliver maximal value to Fortune 500 and mid-market organizations. As VP of Client Services at Mercent he focuses on service delivery excellence, customer satisfaction and development of Mercent’s channel expertise and Mercent Performance Services team to better serve the company’s broad portfolio of brand name Tier 1 retail clients. Prior to joining Mercent, Kochenash served as Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Razorfish (Publicis Groupe), a digital marketing services and technology agency, where he managed a team of performance marketing analysts and consultants serving the company’s top corporate accounts. Prior, he held leadership positions at Amazon.com and McKinsey and Company and was an Officer in the United States Navy. A Marshall Scholar, Kochenash earned his Master’s Degree from the Imperial College at the University of London and Bachelor of Science Degree in Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy.

As Vice President of Products & Market Strategy for Mercent, Lee Corkran is responsible for the definition, realization and launch of Mercent's retail performance marketing products -- including its award-winning Mercent Retail(tm) technology platform and associated offerings.  He heads a team of expert technologists who are focused on ensuring Mercent continually leads the market in product innovation and technology delivery for the benefit Mercent Tier 1 retail client base.

Chris Farah is the Director of Engineering at Mercent, bringing to the company more than 10 years of experience in software development and technical product, project, and lifecycle management.  Chris currently oversees product development, software quality assurance, and platform engineering technology teams for Mercent.  Chris and his teams are responsible for driving the development of Mercent Retail, an on-demand/SAAS software solution serving online retailers.  Prior to joining Mercent, Chris served in the R&D division of the Whirlpool Corporation, developing technologies to enable “the future home”.  Prior, he performed technology research within the hi-ce research group at the University of Michigan, building mobile applications for K-12 education.  Chris has enjoyed software development ever since coding a lemonade stand game in BASIC on his Apple IIe.  He is currently obsessed with NoSQL databases and Auto-Scaling Cloud Applications.  Chris holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

Stuart Corcoran is Mercent’s Director of Technical Services.   In this role, he leads the company’s technology and support teams who are responsible for onboarding new Mercent retail clients onto Mercent’s award-winning Mercent Retail™ technology platform and providing customer support to existing clients.  He is a veteran software development, quality assurance and services professional with more than 15 years of professional experience.  In addition to his technical and management expertise, Stuart offers expertise in organizational process improvement and data-driven decision making.  He is a proponent of Lean methodologies for software and has used these skills to drive operational excellence across many organizations.

Prior to joining Mercent, Stuart held senior management positions and built and managed successful quality assurance teams at Tektronix, Wall Data, Nordstrom and Aventail.  Stuart has successfully led, managed and mentored numerous engineering organizations. He has transformed ineffective waterfall teams to highly productive Scrum teams and was a key member of the management team that did pioneering work on the Kanban process for software development at Corbis.  He is a certified Scrum master and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Western Washington University.

John is a veteran Chief Financial Officer with over 25 years of accounting and management experience. From 1998 to 2007, Wade served as the Chief Financial Officer for publicly traded Aptimus, Inc. (NASDAQ: APTM). Aptimus was a pioneer in the then new medium of the Internet and ultimately became a leader in online direct marketing. While serving as Aptimus’ Finance Chief, Wade managed the company’s Series A and B finance rounds, initiated bridge Lines of credit with Banks, completed an investment of $24 million from a strategic investor and then brought the company into the public arena through a successful IPO in 1999. In addition, Wade guided the company from a small early stage company of 25 employees to a public company with over 220 employees, managed five acquisitions and completed a series of successful reorganizations required due to changes in the Internet business climate. Wade completed his journey with Aptimus by way of the successful sale of Aptimus to the Apollo Group (NasdaqGS :APOL) (The University of Phoenix) in October of 2007. Prior to joining Aptimus, Mr. Wade served as the Chief Financial Officer for a large Sacramento, CA based real estate Development Company from 1990 to 1998. Wade began his career out of college as an auditor and taxation specialist at the international accounting firm of RSM McGladrey. Mr. Wade has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from the San Diego State University School of Business and has been a CPA since 1987.

Mercent’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Kristine Szarkowitz oversees the company’s marketing and communications efforts, including corporate communications and branding, media relations, financial and industry analyst relations, and broad marketing communications to retail clients, prospects and strategic business partners.

With more than 17 years of experience, Kristine is focused on helping Mercent increase marketshare and solidify its presence as a leading performance marketing solutions provider to Tier 1 enterprise retailers.

Throughout her tenured career, Kristine has held senior management roles both for well-established and start-up companies spanning the high tech, wireless & telecommunications, banking & finance, games & entertainment, retail, and consumer industries.  Companies Kristine has worked with include Piper Jaffray, Washington Mutual, Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast, AT&T Wireless, mPoria, Inc. Action Engine, AskMe Corporation, Verge Wireless Systems, LapLink, Inc. and AMDL.

She earned her bachelor's degree in mass communications and public relations with a minor in sports medicine from University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and attended the public relations and communications management Master’s program at Syracuse University.