Leadership Team

Vaughn Thurman

CEO

Vaughn serves as HighGear’s CEO and leads his team of Workflow Champions with honesty, integrity and an unwavering commitment to help customers streamline operations.

Josh Yeager

COO

Josh serves as HighGear’s Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for managing the product development, professional services and customer support teams.

Carl Casserly

Sales Director

Carl builds custom workflows, designs business processes and delivers personalized product demos for customers to understand the power of our no-code workflow platform.

Karl Hindle

Marketing Director

Karl serves as HighGear’s marketing director and is responsible for content marketing, lead generation and social media outreach to spread awareness of the HighGear brand worldwide.

Mark Porter

Product Manager

Mark serves as HighGear’s Product Manager and is responsible for the customer research and design that drives the user experience of the HighGear platform.

Matthew Rodatus

Product Technical Lead

Matthew serves as HighGear’s Technical Lead and is responsible for the overall technical design and development of all new HighGear platform features and documentation.

Matt Rodenbaugh

ProServ Team Lead and Trainer

Matt leads HighGear’s Professional Services team and is responsible for defining, designing and delivering successful customer projects and teaching all training sessions.

John Barr

Customer Support Team Lead

John is responsible for delivering world-class customer support for the HighGear platform to both SaaS and on-premise customers wherever they are located around the globe.

Vaughn Thurman, CEO

Vaughn serves as HighGear’s CEO and leads his team of Workflow Champions with honesty, integrity and an unwavering commitment to help customers streamline operations. His dedication to providing superior customer service and passion for technical excellence is a permanent part of HighGear's DNA.

A seasoned entrepreneur, Vaughn has been working with enterprise technology for close to 30 years. In 1998, Vaughn founded Swift Systems, an IT managed services provider and data center operator in the Washington, D.C. region that serves local, national and international clients.

Vaughn spun out his second startup, Swift Software, in 2003 after an internal software development effort to streamline operations for his rapidly growing IT services business, which led to the creation of HighGear (formerly known as JobTraQ). HighGear's no-code workflow platform was designed to empower non-programmers and everyday business users to develop scalable, easy-to-use, web-based solutions that met enterprise-grade security, authentication and integration requirements.

Vaughn served in the United States Air Force during the Gulf War, supporting aerospace guidance and control systems. He attended the Air Force University Electrical Engineering program, graduating with honors.

He is an active supporter and volunteer for various community charities including serving as a mentor and teacher at a local favorite, The Frederick Rescue Mission, and serves on the board for various local charitable interests and technology associations.

Vaughn enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, including on his boat in the Chesapeake Bay. Vaughn and his wife of 20 years, Elizabeth, are raising 6 children who currently range in age from 5 to 19.

Josh Yeager, COO

Josh serves as HighGear’s Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for managing the Product Development, Professional Services and Customer Support Teams. He is a gifted manager with an eye for building quality into everything we do here at HighGear.

He started his software development career at Swift Systems, where he designed and developed the software and many of the core features that would eventually become the HighGear platform. When Vaughn spun off Swift Software in 2003, Josh joined as a co-founder and helped build the company from the ground up, leading the product design process and taking on more management responsibilities as the team grew.

Prior to working at HighGear, Josh worked on a veterinary pharmaceutical reference software product and various custom business applications, while still in college at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Josh and his wife, Tara, have four children under the age of 10 years old. Although work and family keep him busy, Josh tries to squeeze in some time alone with a good book when he can.

Carl Casserly, Sales Director

Carl serves as HighGear's Sales Director, where he builds custom workflows, designs business processes and delivers personalized product demos for customers to understand the power of our no-code workflow platform. He delights in dazzling new customers with HighGear’s process management nirvana and helping them see the transformative potential of building their own workflow solutions.

Carl previously served as the Financial Controller for Swift Systems for more than 10 years, where he managed debits and credits, after selling his successful bookkeeping and accounting firm that served clients in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area.

Prior to launching his entrepreneurial endeavor, Carl worked at Verizon Wireless, where he served as the Director of Finance for the Wireless Data & Internet Services division, and managed a billion-dollar budget process along with financial reporting and analysis responsibilities.

Carl began his career at Berliner Specialty Distributors, where he managed day-to-day accounting functions and enjoyed the primary company benefit of free, frozen desserts, after graduating from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance.

When he's not at HighGear Headquarters, Carl enjoys spending time with his awesome wife, Ashley, and his two incredible daughters. He is active within his church and is an avid New England Patriots fan.

Karl Hindle, Marketing Director

Karl serves as HighGear’s marketing director and is responsible for content marketing, lead generation and social media outreach to spread awareness of the HighGear brand worldwide.

Karl also serves as the Managing Partner of Wellspring Search, a digital marketing agency that offers world-class SEO, PPC, Marketing Automation and Content Marketing services to generate sales and leads for small-business and enterprise clients.

Prior to joining HighGear, Karl served as Digital Director for ChildFund International, where he led the digital marketing team that spearheaded fundraising for a $700 million annual fundraising organization, which is one of the foremost children's charities in the world.

Karl previously served as the Managing Partner of Andersen Hindle, a digital marketing agency he founded in Richmond, Virginia that provided SEO, SEM, e-Commerce and Social Media services to clients across the U.S. and overseas.

Karl was born and educated in the U.K. and relocated to the United States in 2009. He previously held a variety of senior roles with several companies based in Europe, including work as an accountant at Arthur Andersen in London. He previously graduated from Aston Business School and also served as a paratrooper in the British Army.

Outside of work, he spends time volunteering with various non-profits, such as The Frederick Rescue Mission, he is the author of the Virginia law on international child abduction and also provides no-cost, digital consulting for a number of voluntary organizations. He lives on a farm in the Catoctin Mountains with his dogs, Filo & Frodo, as well as several chickens.

Mark Porter, Product Manager

Mark serves as HighGear’s Product Manager and is responsible for the customer research and design that drives the user experience of the HighGear platform. He is passionate about good user experience and often uses his deep knowledge of the HighGear platform to help our Customer Support Team track down and resolve some of our customers' toughest problems.

Mark Porter has been part of the team here at HighGear since he was a student. He started as an intern on the HighGear Product Development team and has since grown into one of our key leaders. Mark's skill set is extremely broad, from database programming to user interface, user experience and product design, and takes pride in teaching these skills to newer members of our team.

Mark graduated from Hood College with a Computer Science degree with undergraduate research in computer vision. He enjoys playing the guitar, biking and hiking with friends and family and currently resides in Hagerstown, MD with his wife and two young children.

Matthew Rodatus, Product Technical Lead

Matthew serves as HighGear’s Technical Lead and is responsible for the overall technical design and development of all new HighGear platform features and documentation. His technical design expertise and passion for high-quality software play a crucial role in the caliber of the HighGear platform. Matthew has been with HighGear for more than six years, provides technical expertise to the HighGear Customer Support Team and often trains junior members of the software development team.

Matthew has developed software professionally for more than 15 years and brings a wide variety of experience and depth of expertise in software development from roles at Microsoft, HP Enterprise Services and as a research software engineer in natural language processing at his alma mater, the University of Maryland Baltimore County. An engineer at heart from an early age, Matthew began working professionally in software development when he graduated high school.

Outside of work, Matthew spends all of his time with his wife, Lisa, and his three lively girls, aged 10, five and one.

Matthew Rodenbaugh, Professional Services Team Lead

Matt leads HighGear’s Professional Services team and is responsible for defining, designing and delivering successful customer projects and teaching all training sessions. Matt is committed to helping HighGear customers understand the power and flexibility of the HighGear platform and is passionate about delivering training sessions that will transform HighGear customers into successful Workflow Champions.

Prior to joining the team at HighGear, Matt served as a subcontractor through the IT consulting firm he founded, which developed custom IT solutions for regional businesses and assisted customers with hardware and software selection, acquisition and setup.

Matt has more than 15 years of experience in IT consulting and has conducted training at every single job he has ever held, including roles as a Chick-Fil-A Trainer and former Martial Arts Instructor.

John Barr, Customer Support Team Lead

John is responsible for delivering world-class customer support for the HighGear platform to both SaaS and on-premise customers, wherever they are located around the globe. He leads the Customer Support Team, manages our SaaS platform and coordinates HighGear server operations. He also writes advanced technical documentation and user help guides for HighGear Administrators, End Users and IT staff.

John has a wide variety of technology experience across several different industries, including health care and finance, which has given him flexible and creative problem-solving skills. The skill he is most proud of is the ability to see things from his customer’s point of view, which allows him to understand and recreate each issue and offer solutions to customers that meet their needs effectively.

In his off hours, John enjoys a wide variety of outdoor activities. He is an avid gardener and especially likes finding creative ways to grow vegetables. He most enjoys spending time with his family, chasing his kids around and watching both kinds of football.