Robert H. Ruff, Founder & President
As Founder and President of the Sovren Group, Robert Ruff is a software entrepreneur and technologist who combines a deep understanding of the application of artificial intelligence with the semantic understanding of documents.
With thirteen years experience in the staffing industry, initially as a recruiter, then through growing Sovren Group as a global leader in recruitment intelligence components, he recognizes the importance of quickly and easily finding and matching top talent.
Beyond his expertise in the staffing industry, Robert is a dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur, from a family of entrepreneurs. He is experienced in all facets of buyouts and acquisitions due to 10 years tenure in finance and through originating, and consulting on, strategic buyouts. Before he started Sovren Group, Robert bought, improved and sold a small chain of hardware stores, with the flagship store ultimately reaching #7 in sales per square foot out of 22,000 US hardware stores.
Robert’s specialties include multi-lingual software, algorithmic data extraction and search engine feature development.
He earned a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia.
Piper Keairnes, Development Management and Chief Architect
Piper Keairnes brings 20 years of experience designing and developing enterprise-grade commercial software products for the insurance, staffing and recruiting industries. Fresh out of college, he and a partner envisioned, developed and sold the rights to a software product that brought the burgeoning technologies of digital cameras and telecommunications to the hands of mobile insurance claims adjusters. Since then, Piper has driven multiple products from ideas on a whiteboard through to completion, revenue generation, and long-term maintenance. He has practical experience designing enterprise solutions with large databases for use by thousands of concurrent users across global networks.
For "fun", Piper does things like create a multi-platform, real-time, distributed communication library for the DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle from IndyRobotics. This library enabled a development staff proficient in various programming languages and platforms to each develop subsystems using their preferred tools yet easily communicate as one within the real-time, sensor-driven environment of an unmanned vehicle.
Piper earned a BS in Computer Science from Purdue University.
Ken Smith, Sales & Marketing
Ken Smith brings over 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the service provider, SaaS, enterprise management and HR software space to the Sovren Group. His work experience ranges from large companies, such as Time Warner and Nortel, to smaller companies with a global focus. In the early 90s, Ken was named Time Warner employee of the year and a New England Cable TV Association award winner for community involvement. He later moved on to channel sales positions, doubling the business lines for PC Connection and quadrupling the partner revenues for Cabletron Systems (Aprisma).
He earned a BS in Marketing from Franklin Pierce College, now known as Franklin Pierce University, and an MBA from Plymouth State College, now known as Plymouth State University.
Ken is an accomplished guitar player playing in various bands and venues for almost 30 years.
