Infilaw Executive Team Bios
Rick Inatome, Chief Executive Officer
Inatome is a managing director at Sterling Partners, a $4 billion private equity fund. He is a well-known computer industry pioneer who co-founded two multi-billion dollar companies, including Computer City and Inacomp Computer Centers. He was responsible for taking American Speedy Printing, the 4th largest printing chain, out of bankruptcy to become one of the most profitable chains in the U.S. He currently serves on the Boards of AAA Michigan, ACG, R.L. Polk & Co., Saturn Electronics and Michigan Virtual University, the State of Michigan's 13th state chartered public university. He also served on the Advisory Boards of University of Michigan Dearborn and MSU Broad School of Business.
Inatome has played a key role in helping to guide the state of Michigan's business and education technology infrastructure. Governor John Engler appointed him the initial chairman of the Michigan Information Network and Chairman of the Michigan Technology Council. Also, Governor Jim Blanchard appointed him to serve on the Michigan Minority Business Commission and the State Lottery Advisory Board. Inatome was involved in the launch of Microsoft's advisory council where he served as president. He remains a highly sought-after international speaker on information technology strategy and has keynoted Comdex Events in the US, Japan, India, Brazil, and China and was the keynote speaker at the International Computer Forum in Moscow. In 2000, Inatome was inducted into the Computer Industry Hall of Fame, and he was named as one of the 25 most influential people to shape the computer industry in the 1980s by CRN. He was also honored as a Michigan State University Distinguished Alumni, the financial leadership award from Broad School of Business, a Detroit News Michiganian of the Year and entrepreneur of the year by the Harvard Business Club. Inatome holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Michigan State University.
Denise Barlow, Vice President, Academic Programs
Denise Barlow is Vice President of Academic Programs at InfiLaw. She served as a member of the University of Tennessee (UT) administration for over 30 years. Her final position with UT was Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration for the Knoxville campus where her responsibilities included fiduciary accountability of the $750 million operating budget, management of the 218 buildings and the 530 acre campus, and oversight of campus safety & security. Barlow earned a Bachelor of Science accounting degree and an MBA from The University of Tennessee. Barlow is a licensed Certified Public Accountant. During spring 2010, Denise served as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Virginia and participated in the Semester at Sea program.
Ted Blankenship, Chief Financial Officer
Ted Blankenship joined InfiLaw as Chief Financial Officer in late February 2011. Ted and his family are relocating to Naples from Huntsville, Alabama, where he was previously CFO of Avocent Corporation. Avocent was a public technology company listed on NASDAQ until it was acquired by Emerson in late 2009. Avocent developed and sold hardware and software products designed to improve the management of data centers and IT infrastructure around the world with revenue totaling approximately $650 million in 2008. Ted's organization also acquired and integrated several other companies during his tenure.
Prior to Avocent, Ted was a partner with the public accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers serving clients in various industries. After starting in Birmingham, Alabama, he also lived and worked in Zurich, Switzerland, Cleveland, Ohio and London, England. Ted is a graduate of Auburn University and has completed Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program.
Doug Chait, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
Doug Chait is Senior Vice President for Corporate Development. Doug is a former vice president of corporate development of American InterContinental University, a for-profit, international system of universities specializing in technology education. During his tenure, American InterContinental University Company opened four new campuses in three-year period and was sold to Career Education Corporation. Doug also served as CFO of AgentWare, travel software company located in Atlanta. He earned his MBA from Emory University and his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Chicago.
Terry Dirr, Vice President, Technology & Administrative Services
Terry Dirr joined the InfiLaw Team in February 2011 as Vice President of Technology & Administrative Services. Her responsibilities are to ensure outcome acceleration for our company through the development of continuous improvement processes and the automation of comparative metrics in best practices and other key areas of our business.
Terry has spent more than 20 years as a project-orientated technology leader with Convergys with progressively increasing responsibilities. A Six Sigma Green Belt, she has deep project leadership capabilities and IT automation experience that will be an important asset in our continuing evolution toward process excellence. Terry has a B.A. in Management Information Systems from the University of Dayton and a M.B.A., with a concentration in management, from Xavier University.
Andy Heck, Vice President, Human Resources
Andy Heck is Vice President of Human Resources at InfiLaw. He is a former vice president of human resources at Tulane University, and before that, assistant vice president of human resources at Indiana University. Andy spent 13 years with the Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California in a variety of human resource roles providing services for a group of companies including film entertainment, corporate administration, consumer products and Disney Imagineering. Andy received a Master of Science in Educational Counseling Psychology from California State University Long Beach and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Psychology from The Ohio State University.
Donald E. Lively, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Donald E. Lively is Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. Livley was founding dean and chancellor at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Florida and founding dean of Phoenix School of Law. He was the William H. Maier, Jr. Chair of Law at West Virginia University College of Law and a professor at University of Toledo College of Law. Prior to teaching, Dean Lively practiced with a private law firm with Denver, as in-house counsel for a newspaper, and with the Office of the General Counsel, Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. He also clerked for Jim R. Carrigan, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. He is the author or co-author of numerous law review articles, casebooks and law-related books. Dean Lively earned his A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley, his M.S.J. from Northwestern University and his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Chidi Ogene, General Counsel
Chidi Ogene is General Counsel at InfiLaw. Prior to joining InfiLaw, Chidi was a partner in Gilbert LLP, in Washington, DC, where he practiced commercial and corporate law. Before joining Gilbert LLP, he was an associate in the corporate finance group with Sullivan and Cromwell LLP, in New York and Washington, DC.
Chidi received a joint J.D. (cum laude) and M.B.A. from Georgetown University, where he was a member of the Law and Policy in International Business Journal and a Law and Economics Fellow. Chidi also received a B.L. with honors from Nigerian Law School and an LL.B. with honors from the University of Nigeria. He is a member of the Georgetown University Law Alumni Board, Nigerian Lawyers Association, National Black MBA Association, and the New York, Washington, DC, and Nigeria Bars.
Chris Schmitz, Vice President, Finance
Chris Schmitz is Vice President of Finance. Chris began his career at Price Waterhouse in Detroit where he worked in the public accounting sector for five years before joining Borg-Warner Automotive as a regional senior financial analyst and controller. Schmitz has subsequently held positions of increasing responsibility as manager of internal audit and vice president of finance for Pulte Homes and regional controller and corporate vice president of strategic sourcing for Lennar Homes. He also is a licensed CPA, having earned the certification while working for Price Waterhouse.
Schmitz received his undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Michigan Business School and earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University.
Infilaw System Dean Bios
C. Peter Goplerud III, Dean, Florida Coastal School of Law
Peter Goplerud has been dean at Florida Coastal since 2004 and is a former dean of Drake University Law School, University of Oklahoma College of Law and Southern Illinois University School of Law. He earned both his bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctor from the University of Kansas and has co-authored books on sports law and water law and has written numerous law review articles.
Goplerud has extensive service with the American Bar Association, Association of American Law Schools, and the Law School Admissions Council. He serves on the board of directors of the Sports Lawyers Association and is a member of the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission.
Shirley Mays, Dean, Phoenix School of Law
Shirley Mays became dean of Phoenix School of Law on August 2, 2010. She was formerly associate dean of academic affairs at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, where she provided administrative leadership to the academic departments of the law school, including Academic Success, Legal Writing and Legal Drafting, Bar Services, Graduate Programs, Externships and the Legal Clinic, and the Paralegal Program. She also oversaw the Office of Student Administration. She chaired the Faculty Hiring, Minorities in Law, and Honor Code Committees and was a member of the University-wide Strategic Planning Committee, and the committees on Academic Affairs, Externships, and Admissions/Readmissions. Mays has served on several ABA site visit accreditation teams, was a member of the Ohio State Bar Association Task Force on Legal Education and was appointed by the Governor to the Ohio Ethics Commission where she served as the vice-chair.
Dean Mayes received her undergraduate degree from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio and her Juris Doctor from Harvard University Law School.
Denise Spriggs, Interim Dean, Charlotte School of Law
Denise W. Spriggs joined Charlotte School of Law as the Associate Dean of Students and an Associate Professor in the fall of 2006. Prior to joining CSL, Dean Spriggs served as the Assistant Dean and then the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Records at Howard University from 1992 until joining CharlotteLaw. During her time at Howard, Dean Spriggs was the 1997 recipient of the prestigious Warren S. Rosmarin Award for Excellence in Teaching and Service.
Dean Spriggs has had a long and distinguished career in public service. She began her public service career as a Staff Attorney in Syracuse, New York, with the Legal Services Corporation of Central New York. She also served as Executive Director of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO), a program dedicated to providing programs and grants related to increasing minority student enrollment in U.S. law schools.
In the late 1980’s Dean Spriggs served as Assistant Dean for Admissions and Minority Affairs at Hofstra University School of Law in Hempstead, New York. During that time she also taught Business Law as an adjunct professor at LaGuardia Community College and was an instructor/consultant at Seton Hall Law School. Earlier in her educational career, Dean Spriggs was Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at Texas Southern University and, prior to that, a former Special Assistant to the Chancellor of Winston-Salem State University.
Dean Spriggs is currently serving as the interim dean of Charlotte School of Law while a national search is conducted to find a permanent dean for the school.
Dennis Stone, President, Charlotte School of Law
Dennis Stone was a founding executive officer of InfiLaw Consortium, serving as vice president for operations and new school development. He also served as a founding executive of Florida Coastal School of Law.
Stone has been involved in legal education for over 30 years, serving as a law school evaluator for the American Bar Association. He was a tenured professor of law and law librarian at the University of Connecticut and served in a similar capacity at Gonzaga University School of Law. He has taught in a number of areas of law and has helped found several law journals including the Canadian-American Law Journal and the University of Connecticut Journal of International Law. Stone has served in a number of capacities with the California and Florida Bar Associations and the American Association of Law Schools, the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Libraries and is a former member of Westlaw Advisory Council.
Scott E. Thompson, President, Phoenix School of Law
Scott Thompson is the former chief financial officer and group vice president for the Consumer-International sector of Travelport, Inc., formerly part of Cendant Corporation. During Thompson’s Travelport tenure, he held various positions including chief financial officer, controllership and planning & analysis. Prior to Cendant, he held global financial positions with Ingersoll Rand, Applied Power, Inc., and Aqua-Chem, Inc.
Thompson’s career began in public accounting with KPMG and he has worked and lived internationally in London, England. He received a Global Executive MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and an undergraduate degree in accounting from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He was a 4-year varsity basketball player and a member of the 1984 NCAA Division III national championship team.