Pat Guider came to TOPAZ Technologies as Chief Operating Officer in 1995. From a management structure standpoint, Mr. Guider directs the business development, administrative and financial aspects of the company and works closely with the Vice Presidents, Directors, and Managers to help guide and support activities over which they have specific responsibility. Mr. Guider was the President and Chief Operating Officer for the predecessor company, TOPAZ Technologies, Inc. During the same period he was the primary Business Development partner. Patrick has 30 years experience in the medical research industry, of which 19 years were spent at Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. While at Roche, Mr. Guider held positions in finance, office systems and comparative medicine, and became Research Facility Administrator responsible for regulatory compliance of the Laboratory Animal Resource facilities throughout the United States. His last nine years at Roche were focused on Quality Assurance and automated data collection within the research environment. His emphasis was on compliance with regulations regarding the collection of data by computer systems to report to the Food and Drug Administration and United States Department of Agriculture. Mr. Guider attended the Fairleigh Dickinson University and has degrees with honors in Business, Economics and Administration.
Mick Peters joined TOPAZ in 1997. Michael is responsible for ensuring products match customer needs from a quality and product roadmap perspective. Mr. Peters was the Vice President of Product Development for the predecessor company, TOPAZ Technologies, Inc. Mr. Peters has 22 years experience in the medical research industry, 12 of which were at Pharmaco LSR (a “contract research organization”). While at Pharmaco, he was the Director of Information Systems and responsible for the development of software applications for collection of pre-clinical and clinical trials data. He also worked as a toxicologist and study director. Mr. Peters holds a BS with honors in biology from Coventry University in England and a BA in Systems Analysis from the Open University in England.
Scott Calvin joined the company in February 2007 as Director of Client Projects & Services. He was promoted to Vice President of Sales in August 2008. Mr. Calvin has 21 years of experience in the technology consulting and software industries. Prior to joining TOPAZ, he coordinated software solutions for enterprise clients for Pervasive Software, a leading data infrastructure software company. In his roles as Sr. Account Executive and Client Services Manager, Scott led technology consulting efforts that include project management, application development, legacy system integration, and web enabled business solutions. Mr. Calvin has served as Treasurer and President of the Austin Association of Information Technology Professionals and was a founder of the annual Austin Information Technology Executive of the Year Awards. He is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin with a BA in the Plan II Honors Program
Ray Houston joined TOPAZ joined the company in April 2007. Mr. Houston has been a professional software engineer for 18 years and has worked in a variety of industries including offshore engineering, real estate, CRM, accounting, and online merchandising. He has been in information technology, including programming, analysis, project management, process improvement, strategic planning, and leading development teams and building enterprise applications through the entire software development cycle for over 10 years. He has worked as an independent consultant, has been a principal for an online startup, and served as a principal architect for a software services provider. Mr. Houston is an MCSD (Microsoft Certified Software Developer) in .NET and is a participant and contributor to the software development community.
Melinda Dalton joined the company in September 2002. Since then, Ms. Dalton has been an integral part of our Client Services Department and was promoted to Director in 2008. Melinda is the leader in industry knowledge for TOPAZ Technologies. In the last 8 years she has worked extensively with over 80 pharmaceutical, governmental, academic and private organizations engaged in research as their trusted advisor. Melinda focuses on managing engagements in program compliance and operational improvement. She regularly works with organizations to improve their operational effectiveness by identifying risks, taking actions to limit their impact, and designing strategies that protect clients’ compliance interests while enhancing staff efficiency and performance.