Jane Burke
Jane Burke is Vice President and General Manager of Serials Solutions, a Seattle-based business unit of ProQuest. Jane was appointed to this position in June, 2005. Prior to joining ProQuest, Jane co-founded and served as President/CEO of Endeavor Information Systems. In addition to working as a librarian at Cook Memorial Library in Libertyville, Illinois early in her career, Jane served as President of NOTIS Systems.
Jane earned masters degrees in Library Science from Dominican University (formerly Rosary College) and in Management from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University. Always an involved member of the library community, she now serves on the Board of Governors for the Northwestern University Library and on the Board of Directors for the Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Among her many awards, Jane was inducted into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.
Peter McCracken
Peter McCracken conceived the idea for Serials Solutions while working as a reference librarian at East Carolina University, and then at the University of Washington. McCracken was frustrated by the difficulty of locating and navigating electronic resources, which his colleagues and patrons seldom knew existed. In 2000, Peter recruited his two brothers, Mike and Steve McCracken, and a high school friend, Chris Pierard, to help him solve this problem for libraries across the country. The four founders developed an effective and affordable solution that could be implemented at libraries worldwide. After creating the first A-to-Z list in 2000, Peter molded Serials Solutions from a small start-up into an industry leader with a complete suite of E-Resource Access and Management Services. He remains Director of Research at Serials Solutions.
Peter earned his bachelor’s degree at Oberlin College, plus master’s degrees in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in Maritime History from East Carolina University. He writes a regular column on “Maritime History on the Internet” for Sea History magazine, and maintains http://www.shipindex.org, a free site that lists which books and journals mention over 100,000 ship names. In addition, Peter serves on the Council of Advocates for the University of Washington Libraries and on the Board of Visitors for the School of Information & Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Yolanda Chao
Yolanda Chao, Director of Technology, has been with Serials Solutions since 2004. Prior to joining the company, she worked for a variety of internet and software development firms, including AOL Sprynet. She was the first software engineer at Spry, the creators of “Internet in a Box.” Yolanda served as Vice President of Engineering at InstantService.com, DeepCanyon, and Wildtangent, Inc., a leading online game publisher. She has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Missouri with an emphasis on computer networking and internet technologies.
Michael Platt
Michael G. Platt comes to Serials Solutions with over 14 years of successfully providing and managing technical systems and support. Prior to joining Serial Solutions, he led organizations with different technical environments. His goal was always the same: to provide the end-user with the best possible service and systems to allow for the greatest productivity. In his previous positions, he built and managed global technical support and systems for end-users at CBS MarketWatch.com and was Vice President in charge of technical support & services for various software-development companies specializing in health information, payment processing and inventory tracking systems.
Michael earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Minnesota State University. He is a member of the Help Desk Institute and has a certification for Support Center Management and IT Services Management (ITIL). Michael is also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.
Harry Kaplanian
Harry Kaplanian was appointed Director of Product Management in May 2007. Prior to joining Serials Solutions, he worked for Microsoft developing Live Search Books. He also served as Vice President of Development at Mandarin Library Automation and previously Director of Development at SIRS Publishing. Harry graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Computer Science with an emphasis on mathematics.
Matt Hall
Matt Hall, Director of Sales for Serials Solutions, leads the company’s North American sales efforts and has played a critical role in Serials Solutions’ worldwide expansion. Since 2001, Matt has orchestrated the company’s growth to include over 2000 libraries, played a crucial role in the development of all services, and is now a member of Serials Solutions’ executive leadership team. Prior to becoming one of Serials Solutions’ original staff members, Matt consulted organizations in the areas of technology and resource allocation.
