Richard is a co-founder and chief executive who oversees all technical projects. The technical force behind our operation, he raises the standard on every project. Building business solutions since 1985, he developed the personnel system for a NASA aerospace contractor before joining Duke University Medical Center in 1989. At Duke he rose to lead the Clinical Development Group that pioneered PC based applications at Duke Hospital. Under his leadership, his group developed a clinical data repository results browser and an electronic clinical report transcription system. Focusing mainly on education and healthcare sectors, Richard has concentrated on improving patient safety and support for community based health care and disease management. At Duke, Richard was one of five members of a team that conceived the now healthcare industry HL7 CCOW standard for clinical context management, which has since spawned at least two commercial software firms selling CCOW products. Richard has guided Topsail into its 10th year of success bringing his passion, integrity, architectural creativity, talent for simplicity, and warm personable style to every client project.

Anne, co-founder and finance manager at Topsail, directs training components and oversees project budgets. Relying on her experiences as an English teacher and program manager of community grant-funded initiatives, Anne advocates clear communication with clients and comprehensive training for program participants. At the Duke University Medical Center, Anne directed implementation of the Risk Watch Injury Prevention Curriculum in schools throughout North Carolina, collaborated with communities to build support, and trained teachers during on-site educational workshops. Anne received her BA from Hamilton College and her MBA from Cornell University.

Jan has a Masters degree in Mathematics and Computer Sciences from the University Greifswald, Germany. He enjoys being involved in the full life cycle of software and database development, from the requirements gathering, planning, design, development, and testing phases to the deployment phase. Jan constantly seeks exposure to new technologies and methodologies, and has applied his development skills for Duke University, Duke University Hospital and the Environmental Protection Agency of the Bundesland MVP (Germany). Jan is the Topsail developer and technical brains behind the enormously successful e-Billing electronic charge capture system and HL7 interfaces used by the Duke Eye Center physicians in the clinic exam rooms.

Emily is an experienced application developer with a Computer Science degree from North Carolina State University. She has more than ten years of experience during which time she worked for companies such as Atmos Energy, The NC Solar Center, and NCSU. Emily enjoys building applications from the ground up: learning the inner workings of a process and building an application to support users in that process. She excels at project management and user interface simplicity. Her first project for Topsail Technologies, Cardio Tutor has been well-received.

Pierre is a self-taught developer and has a degree in business from the University of Otago (New Zealand) in partnership with UNC Kenan-Flagler. Before joining Topsail, he was a freelance designer & developer working directly with small business owners or through marketing and software agencies. His passion for business is what drives him as a designer and developer - his philosophy of software development starts off screen: good software is built through understanding real world systems and human psychology.

Diane has a Master's in Education from UNC-Chapel Hill and more than a decade of experience in the field of training and development. She has managed the training and development division for a large local government, written and implemented organizational training policy and procedures, and established the foundation for a system wide training program. Whether it involves directing internal trainers or contracting with external providers, Diane has the expertise to oversee course development, implementation and evaluation.