Management
Joel Koppelman and Richard Faris founded Primavera in 1983. Their clear vision has helped establish Primavera as the leader in project and portfolio management solutions and to raise the awareness of project portfolio management across a wide range of industries. Together, with a management team made up of individuals with strong technical expertise and solid business experience, Primavera is creating solutions that enable businesses around the world to achieve their strategic objectives through better project, portfolio and resource management.
Founders & Visionaries
Management Team
Joel M. Koppelman // CEO
Joel M. Koppelman is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Primavera Systems, Inc. Primavera’s clients depend on its project, resource and portfolio management solutions to identify which projects are most important and to make it easy for people to work collaboratively, productively and successfully.
Primavera solutions are industry-specific and role-based, with the power to support global enterprises and they have ensured the success of projects and programs collectively worth more than $6 trillion.
Mr. Koppelman coauthored with Quentin Fleming the PMI best-selling book “Earned Value Project Management”. He was elected to the Drexel University 100 and has received the “Award of Merit” from AACE and the “Distinguished Contributor Award” from PMI.
Mr. Koppelman holds a B.S. in civil engineering from Drexel University and an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Read Earned Value Articles co-authored by Joel M. Koppelman and Quentin W. Fleming
Richard Faris // Executive Vice President
Richard K. Faris is co-founder, co-owner, and Executive Vice President of Primavera Systems, Inc. Mr. Faris has led new product development (design, programming, quality assurance, and documentation) for more than 25 years years. As a result of his technical product vision, Primavera has successfully kept pace with the innovations in computer hardware and software by developing more 70 releases of twelve distinct project management products. Current products take advantage of both Windows and Web-based user interfaces, client/server architecture, and relational databases.
Before founding Primavera, Mr. Faris spent more than 13 years planning, designing, managing, and controlling capital projects in the transportation industry and developing transportation network simulation systems. Mr. Faris was Vice President at Transportation Distribution Associates, an engineering consulting firm headquartered in Philadelphia, and was also employed at Booz, Allen & Hamilton as Senior Consultant. Professional assignments included working as project manager for the City of Philadelphia, managing numerous transportation simulation studies and responsible for power-demand analysis, operations planning, and project scheduling, planning, management, and control.
Mr. Faris is a registered professional engineer and is an active member of several professional societies. He has delivered technical papers at PMI, AACE, ASCE, CIFE ( Stanford University), and A/E/C Systems, and is a guest lecturer at several universities.
Mr. Faris earned bachelor of science and master of science degrees in civil engineering from Villanova University.
Mitchell T. Codkind // Vice President - Finance
As Vice President of Finance and the company's CFO, Codkind oversees the financial, production and information systems operating groups. He holds a master's of business administration degree in management from Hofstra University and a bachelor of science degree in accounting from C.W. Post Center, Long Island University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Scott Grisanti // Executive Vice President – Sales, Marketing and Services
Grisanti is responsible for directing and synchronizing worldwide sales, product marketing and professional services. He received his bachelor degree in English and Journalism from Rutgers University.
Jennifer Chen // Vice President - Customer Support
Chen is responsible for managing all customer support operations for Primavera's full line of project portfolio management software. She holds a B.S. in Political Science / General Business from Santa Clara University.
Kristy C. Tan, PMP // Vice President - Product Strategy
Tan leads the Product Strategy group which is responsible for developing and implementing the strategic plan for Primavera’s complete line of project, portfolio and resource management software. Tan is a registered Project Management Professional and earned her bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Drexel University.
Diane Nicolls // Vice President - Professional Services
Nicolls manages all professional services efforts, including product training, software implementation and project portfolio management consulting. She also directs design and development of classroom and online training courses. Nicolls holds a bachelor of science degree in business education from Elizabethtown College.
Nancy Allen // Vice President - Strategy Communications
Allen is responsible for industry analyst relations, the Primavera magazine, and measuring the results of Primavera’s strategy. Allen received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from Brigham Young University and a master's of education degree in instructional technology from Utah State University.
Michael Jenkins // Vice President - Human Resources
Organizational development, recruitment and employee relations are among the ongoing human resources' functions that Jenkins manages. He holds a Master's in Human Services from Lincoln University.
Dean Forbes // Vice President - International Sales
Forbes is responsible for continuing Primavera’s international growth, as well as diversifying the company’s revenue streams beyond indirect sales. Before joining Primavera, Forbes worked in a variety of sales management positions at Isis Telecoms and Motorola. He has a bachelor's degree in media and marketing from Greenwich University.
Mike Sicilia // Chief Technology Officer
Sicilia is responsible for ensuring that innovative technology is used strategically, appropriately, and timely in Primavera products. He evaluates strategic options for Primavera involving products, solutions, and technology. Mike develops the technical strategy and vision as it pertains to products, and is responsible for the design, programming, testing and documentation efforts for Primavera's project, portfolio and resource management software.
He holds a bachelor of science degree in computer science from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA.
Top of Page
