Melynda Caudle is an enthusiastic team builder who loves tackling complex problems and crafting elegant solutions. Melynda worked for several years in the Cooper offices in various capacities, including that of Chief Business Officer, before purchasing the company in June of 2006. New objectives for Cooper, after the purchase of the business and scrubbing all of its internal processes and costs, included expanding the government practice, creating a project management practice, moving into the private sector with services, and creating a products practice. The Cooper team has proven itself up to the objectives that Melynda set for them.

Melynda continues to be focused on building and refining best practices, looking at ways to increase the profitability of the company to provide our employees more choices, working on new business development in the state agency environment and moving Cooper into new markets. She believes in and acts on being customer-focused and has an innate curiosity about what makes people and systems work and this fuels the results-oriented problem-solving that brings her bliss.

• A certified Project Management Professional (PMP), she has been involved in technology projects that include: touch screens, e-commerce, and business applications. Her favorite projects have included being the project management executive leading the creation of IBM's worldwide premier e-commerce site for business partners as well as consulting to educate customers on the importance of understanding good software engineering practices. She also has comprehensive experience in programming, database analysis and design, and system analysis.
• Melynda has more than twenty-five years of experience in information technology. Her broad experience working for EDS, IBM, state and county governmental bodies, and now Cooper Consulting has allowed her to work closely with customers, technologists, and people at all levels of those organizations.
• In her role as president she is responsible for new business development, customer relationship management, recruiting, proposal development, and the day-to-day work of keeping ahead of the change curve.
• Her board activities include:
  • Executive Women in Texas Government
    • Development Committee - 2008 to 2010
  • Impact Austin Board Member
  • Chair - 2009 to 2010
  • Association for Women in Technology Austin (AWTAustin) annual business conference
  • Chair - Annual Business Conference
  • VP of Sponsorship - 2008 to 2009
  • President - 2006 to 2008
  • Austin Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN)
  • The Alternative Board (TAB) 2006 to present
• She is a proud member of the Leadership Texas class of 2008
• Melynda has a degree in Business/Marketing and is trained in NLP and other communication techniques

A native New Mexican, Melynda enjoys trips to her cabin in Ruidoso - no matter what time of year it is. She enjoys energy work as a Reiki Master, sings with a local jazz band - Contrafact, and is passionate about educating others on the options available to them in taking control of their financial futures.

Constantin brings over 20 years of experience encompassing Internet publishing, e-Commerce, Electrical Engineering, and direct marketing. He has conceptualized the launch and delivery of complex technology projects in a variety of businesses, focusing on providing robust and adaptable e-business strategies and technology architectures supported by cross-functional teams.

As Chief Engineer, Mr. Radu is responsible for Cooper Product Development and the Cooper Consulting Europa branch recently opened in Bucharest where he will employ his advanced skills in French and Romanian.

He has an international knowledge in information technology working as Senior Technical Solution Project Manager for IIRUC, the largest computer maintenance company in Romania, Lead Engineer for Automation Collignon en Belgium, Sr. Research Associate for National Research and Telecommunication Institute in Montreal Canada and R&D Director for Ecmarket in Vancouver, Canada.

Constantin was approached by IBM in Austin, TX, where for the last ten years he has been part of the leadership team charged with IBM�s e-Commerce re-architecture. As senior consultant for Cooper Consulting, Constantin was Business Architect for the Strategic Direct project, a worldwide initiative that supports the growth of on-demand business for IBM and creates a fully-integrated, competitive teleweb capability for IBM to sell products and services directly to customers in mid-market firms and large enterprises. That capability was achieved through a comprehensive set of end-to-end processes, continuity of customer and product information, and a common infrastructure based on WebSphere Commerce Business Edition (WCBE).

Constantin graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest with a Master of Science degree in Computer Science in 1983, and achieved a second Masters Degree in Telecommunications in Montreal.

Lorelei Weitzel is a Senior Consultant with over 20 years of experience in leadership and consulting positions with the private sector and Texas state government. She has served as chief information officer, technical director, and senior project manager for major information systems initiatives related to developing and deploying geographic information systems, regulatory management systems, business process improvement, and web application systems for natural resource agencies.

Lorelei has significant experience working through the budgeting, contracting, and legislative processes, having spearheaded initiatives with executive management, boards, and legislative committees for data center services, flood plain management, strategic mapping, and oil and gas regulatory process improvement.

Lorelei's work experience includes:

• Deputy Executive Administrator (CIO) for the Texas Water Development Board, where she was in charge of agency information technology resources including data center operations, software application development, and the Texas Natural Resources Information System, the State's clearinghouse for geographic data and technology services.
• Technical Director for the Railroad Commission of Texas, where she led major business process reengineering and information systems initiatives to deploy new web-based capabilities. She was the chief architect of statewide mapping initiatives to develop a base map and database of over 1 million oil and gas well locations and 300,000 miles of regulated pipeline data.
• Former board member of the Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC) and the Texas Geographic Society.
• Chaired the Texas Geographic Information Council (TGIC)
• Board member of the Association for Women in Technology Austin

Lorelei holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin and is a 2004 graduate of Leadership Texas.

Bob Futrell is a Senior Project Manager and Practice Leader for Cooper Consulting in Austin, TX. He led the implementation of the Election Division's TEAM (Texas Elections Administration Management) System for the Texas Secretary of State 2004-2008. He has also served as project manager for a large data warehouse project supporting AMD's Dresden Germany Fab36, been a senior project manager and program controller at MOS-11, one of Motorola's Austin semiconductor operations, and served as a project management master and as a Quality examiner for performance excellence in Motorola.

Mr. Futrell is an adjunct professor in the University of Dallas' internet MBA program and is currently teaching beginner and advanced Project Management courses to graduate students. He has been a principle instructor in the Software Project Management Certificate Program of the Software Quality Institute for the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin since 1993. In addition, he has been lead instructor for the Project Management Certificate program at UT's Professional Development Center, and lead instructor for the IT Project Management certificate program at the Austin Community College for both onsite and online courses.

Mr. Futrell is a co-author with Don & Linda Shafer for the UT Software Quality Institute's Series in Software Engineering textbook "Quality Software Project Management", through Prentice-Hall publishers. It has been reprinted in Chinese and Russian. His career included 15 years with Texas Instruments where he managed the Knowledge Engineering group and the Operating Systems Development group. Bob has also been certified as an ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer, an ASQ Certified Quality Manager and a PMI Project Management Professional.

Kristina joined the Cooper Consulting team in June of 2008, with a focus on improving the maturity of our processes for managing our employees, our wellness, and our performance measurement and tracking. As a Human Resources Generalist, Kristina administers and explains benefits to our employees and serves as a liaison between employees and our insurance carriers.

Her education and experience includes:

• Master's of Arts in Human Services with a concentration in Organizational Development and Training from St. Edward's University.
• Bachelor’s of Science degree in Psychology from Sam Houston University
• Certificate to Mediate in Texas.
• Six years sales and customer service experience.
• Outside of work, Kristina enjoys spending time with her friends and enjoying all of the great activities that Austin has to offer.

Melissa joined the Cooper Consulting management team in July, 2006, with a focus on company financials while participating in strategic planning, corporate policies and procedures, employee relations, management of compensation and benefits, and support for business growth and development.

Her education and experience includes:

• Graduate, Texas State University, 2005.
• Post Graduate classes in Small Business Accounting and Human Resources Management
• Summer law program at the American University, Cairo, Egypt
• Currently pursuing a law degree at New York Law School, New York City
• More than eight years of work experience in customer service
• Melissa enjoys snowboarding, life in Manhattan, and making a difference by utilizing her free time to help others - whether it is teaching English to Iraqi refugees or volunteering time on immigration issues.