Executive Team
Michael Gray
President and CEO
Mr. Gray founded Global Relief Technologies in the spring of 2003.
Previously to GRT, Mr. Gray has over 20 years of extensive, high-level experience working for the US Federal government, the US military and other international interests. Most recently, from 2001 to 2003, he served as a US State Department advisor to US Central Command and General Tommy Franks in regards to humanitarian and reconstruction operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Previous to that position, Mr. Gray worked as a US State Department Refugee Coordination Officer in the Balkans; a US Naval Reserve officer, serving on the policy and planning staff of Sir Lt. General Michael Jackson in Kosovo; and as a Naval Reserve officer on the Joint Staff (J-4 Logistics) at the Pentagon where he coordinated civil-military Disaster Relief Operations.
Mr. Gray also has extensive experience working in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He was Program Director of the US Department of Justice’s Anti-Organized Crime Assistance Program for Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. As Associate Director of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Central and East European Law Initiative (CEELI), Mr. Gray provided start-up management for the ABA’s and the US State Department’s rule of law and criminal justice assistance to the countries of the former Soviet Union. He lived and worked in the countries of the former Soviet Union and Central Asia from 1992 to 1995. From 1990 to 1992 Mr. Gray served as Deputy Director of Creditanstalt's (Bank of Austria) Trade Finance Programs for Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.
Adam Cote
Senior Vice President
Mr. Cote joined GRT in December 2008. His responsibilities include managing, overseeing and building upon GRT’s local, state and federal emergency management initiatives. Accordingly, Mr. Cote works closely with the American Red Cross, the national guard and numerous emergency management related organizations throughout the country.
Mr. Cote has a strong background in law, public policy and the military. Previously, he served as Counsel to Maine’s largest law firm, Pierce Atwood LLP, where his practice involved all aspects of public affairs work as well as domestic and international energy-related matters, with a particular focus on renewable energy. Mr. Cote has also worked in Albania, Bosnia and Croatia, assisting those countries in restructuring their energy sectors.
As an Army Reservist in the military police, Mr. Cote served from 1997 to 1998 as a member of Operation Joint Guard/NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Bosnia, Mr. Cote assisted in apprehending several war criminals wanted by the Hague and also volunteered to teach English at a local Bosnian school. More recently, as an officer in the Maine Army National Guard, Mr. Cote served in Mosul, Iraq from 2004 to 2005 where, among other work, he created the “Adopt an Iraqi Village” program which distributed clothing, household goods and school supplies to local Iraqi villagers.
In 2008, Mr. Cote ran for Congress in Maine’s First Congressional District, placing second in a six-way primary.
He is a graduate of Colby College and the University of Maine School of Law and lives in Sanford, Maine with his wife and four young children.
Arthur W. Cleaves
Vice President of Operations, Emergency Management
Mr. Cleaves joined GRT in August 2009. He is in charge of Operations with particular emphasis on Emergency Management.
Mr. Cleaves is the former Regional Administrator of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region I Office in Boston, Mass., from May 2005 until January 2009. In this capacity, he was responsible for coordinating FEMA emergency preparedness, mitigation, and disaster response and recovery activities in the six New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. As Administrator/Director he has overseen 34 Major Disaster Declarations including the ‘Patriot’s Day Storm’ in May 2007, which was the first time in history that all 6 New England States were simultaneously effected. Also, he was the Administrator during the December 2008 Ice Storm which resulted in Presidential Disaster Declarations in 4 New England States.
Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. Cleaves served as the Director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) since 1999. In addition to his emergency management duties, shortly after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Cleaves was appointed as Director of Homeland Security for the state of Maine, by the Governor.
Mr. Cleaves spent over 30 years in the Army National Guard rising to the rank of Colonel before retiring in 1999. During his time in the Army National Guard, Mr. Cleaves received numerous awards including the Army Commendation Medal (3rd award), the Meritorious Service Medal (2nd award), and the Legion of Merit.
Mr. Cleaves received a Bachelors degree from the University of Maine. During his military career, Mr. Cleaves completed the Command and General Staff College in Kansas, and the Joint Services Military Planning College at the Naval War College in Virginia.
Michael Hartnett
Vice President, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief
Mr. Hartnett joined GRT in December 2007. He brings to GRT more than twenty years of international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, market development and technology experience including extensive operational experience in Latin America, Europe and Asia. During his career he has worked across the public, private and non-profits sectors with a focus on leveraging technology to increase international development and international security.
In 2006, he coauthored a report for the National Defense University entitled A Framework for Improved Coordination: Lessons Learned from the International Development, Peacekeeping, Peace-building, Humanitarian and Conflict Resolution Communities. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a member of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Applied Technology Working Group and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Center for Complex Operations.
Larry Trudeau, PMP
Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering
As the new CTO and Vice President of Engineering at GRT, Mr. Trudeau’s primary responsibilities include creating the RDMS project roadmap, maintaining a high performing technology team, and creating and managing the software development process. Mr. Trudeau has over 25 years of software company leadership experience in the high technology and software industry.
Mr. Trudeau has been instrumental in founding and helping to start several software technology companies, having served as the main technology executive responsible for managing the technology and IT teams and several product rollouts. During his tenure at these companies, Mr. Trudeau created initial product ideas and product visions and helped to expand the usage of the products under his management by releasing new features to clients. Mr. Trudeau has been responsible for the creation and management of high performance software engineering teams that have produced applications that have been the first in their field.
Mr. Trudeau has served in leadership positions at numerous software companies during the past 25 years. For example, he participated as a founding member of Access Development Corporation where he was CTO and VP of Development. He also served as CTO for Axint Technologies Corporation, Canadian Access and InsLogic. He also served as VP of development for Processware, Inc. and Phoenix Systems. Mr. Trudeau was also a member of the Board of Directors of Access Development, Axint Technologies, Canadian Access, Processware, and Phoenix Systems.
He holds a B.S. degree from Bryant University and lives in Chelmsford, Massachusetts with his wife.
Richard King
Vice President, Chief Database Architect
Mr. King has over 15 years experience as a Software Professional specializing in the design, development, implementation, administration, and management of enterprise databases, data warehouses, and business intelligence solutions and architectures. His emphasis in these areas is on delivering scalable and extensible architectures and solution frameworks. Mr. King’s experience includes the design and implementation of logical and physical OLTP, data warehouse and data mart data schemas.
As the Chief Database Architect, Mr. King is responsible for all database architecture and implementation at GRT. Rick has been an employee of GRT since May of 2009 and immediately set to work implementing new data schemas for the RDMS Product.
Mr. King has worked at several high profile companies such as Monster.com where he was the manager and lead architect for the Global Data Warehouse and distributed data marts. At Magenic Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Partner consulting company he was the New England regions’ Principal Consultant, Database and Business Intelligence. Rick also worked at several other high technology software companies in a data capacity during his career.
Rick graduated from Concordia University in Montreal Canada with a B.S. MIS degree. He lives in Milford, NH with his wife and 2 children.
Mark Mullin
Vice President, Software Development
Mr. Mullin is software executive whose career spans over 25 years in software research and development for telecommunications, military, finance, entertainment, and enterprise applications. His experience in the design of languages, complex operating systems, and sophisticated graphics systems spans work done for the Department of Defense, international communications firms such as Cable and Wireless and ITT, and commercial software firms such as SoftView, Taligent, and Sierra On-Line.
In his role as Vice President of Software Development, Mr. Mullin positions the software assets for future growth while ensuring that ongoing operations are fully supported. In his tenure at GRT, Mr. Mullin introduced new technologies to allow for shared work to be performed during data gathering, business rules driven reporting, and a new service infrastructure used to support both mobile to server and server to server communications.
In the last ten years Mr. Mullin has served as a consultant to a number of financial and software companies, providing guidance and development services to organizations such as Unum Provident, PC-Connection, AIR Worldwide, and others. As a consultant he also taught over a dozen technical seminars at Microsoft events on advanced programming concepts.
Mr. Mullin established a reputation for being able to identify technical trends and directions, as evidenced by his early adoption of object oriented programming techniques in the early 1980's. Based on this work, he wrote two books for Addison-Wesley. One, "Object Oriented Program Design", was a best seller. More recently he has been active in the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) community and the Microsoft .Net communities, having identified both as strong contenders in the 2000-2001 timeframe.
He has often held positions of critical responsibility where he has been involved in all levels of software development and program management as a direct employee and consultant. He has previously served in several executive staff roles, as the owner of a boutique consulting corporation (Stratix, Inc) to the DoD, as the VP of Engineering to SoftView (now part of Intuit), as the VP of R&D to Dynamix, and as the CEO of Vibrant 3D. During the acquisition of SoftView, he was named as one of the key employees in the purchase agreement.
Mr. Mullin is the inventor and developer of the V3 Technology that anchors the Vibrant 3D Data Visualization System. While at the Visible Human Corporation and Vibrant 3D, Inc, he was responsible for all phases of research, design, development, production of products and provision of services of the company. During this time, he produced several award winning surgical simulation systems and a system for visualizing relationships in equity trading. Mark lives in Portsmouth, NH.
Chip Peter
Vice President
Mr. Peter has been instrumental in managing and building the technology to fulfill the mission of GRT. In fact, he oversaw the design and construction of the GRT operations center. He also managed the GRT software development process from early prototype through the full development life cycle.
Mr. Peter has over 12 years of experience in the telecommunications and software industry. His responsibilities have included advanced technology assessment, infrastructure capital planning, and technology trials. Prior to joining GRT, Mr. Peter was a Director with Vodafone.
Michelle Richards
Director of Finance and Administration
Before joining GRT on a full-time basis in January 2008, Ms. Richards was a part-time consultant for GRT from May, 2006 until December, 2007. Ms. Richards has over 10 years of experience in the public accounting field.
Previous to joining GRT, she served as Financial Controller of a start-up computer hardware and software consulting firm for four years.
Ms. Richards is a certified public accountant and is licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Bruce Fitzgerald
Program Manager, Homeland Security and Emergency Management
Mr. Fitzgerald joined GRT in February 2009 as the Program Manager for Maine. His primary responsibilities include acting as a liaison between GRT and the Maine National Guard, Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), and various first responder agencies.
Most recently Mr. Fitzgerald was the Director of the Homeland Security Division at MEMA. In that role, he oversaw all Homeland Security initiatives for the State of Maine, including coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, neighboring New England States and Canadian Provinces, and management of several multi-million dollar grant programs from DHS. In addition, Mr. Fitzgerald was the co-manager of the Maine Information and Analysis Center (MIAC, or State Fusion Center).
During his six years at MEMA, Mr. Fitzgerald participated in the State’s response to 10 Presidentially-declared disasters, serving in nearly every role in the State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in different events during that timeframe. Maine also experienced several lesser emergency and security events over that span, as well as providing assistance to Gulf Coast states in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Prior to his tenure at MEMA, Mr. Fitzgerald worked for then-Congressman, John E. Baldacci, in both State and Washington D.C. offices. When Rep. Baldacci was elected Governor of the State of Maine in 2002, Mr. Fitzgerald returned home to his native state and worked in the Governor’s Office for several months before transitioning to MEMA.
Mr. Fitzgerald graduated from the University of Maine in 2000 with a degree in Political Science. He also attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative in 2006.
He resides in South China, Maine.
Joshua Wilson
Program Manager, GRT Raytheon Program
Mr. Wilson has thirteen years of technology experience spanning IT and Operations, Software Development, and Management roles at companies in the Engineering, Financial, Marketing, and Software Industries.
Mr. Wilson has a strong background in supporting Web-based and Distributed Applications as both a Team Member and Manager. Mr. Wilson’s technical experiences in IT and Software Development coupled with his Management education enables him to align the priorities of the Technical Engineering Staff with the Companie’s immediate and long-term objectives.
Mr. Wilson joined GRT in January of 2007 as an IT Engineer supporting the RDMS Infrastructure. Mr. Wilson supported the live deployment of RDMS for a USMC Field Exercise in Thailand in 2007. In July of 2007, he moved into a Project Manager role, and later was promoted to Program Manager, for GRT’s custom built application supporting total asset visibility for Raytheon’s RAID program.
Previous to working at GRT, Mr. Wilson spent 7 years as the Sr. IT Administrator at a Predicative Data Modeling company.
Mr. Wilson has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Management and Administration from Merrimack College.
Marla Berry
Program Manager, Power and Utilities Companies
Ms. Berry joined GRT in September of 2007 as a software engineer for GRT’s custom website solution supporting total asset visibility for Raytheon’s RAID program. She took on project management responsibilities a year later, leading GRT’s relationship with Raytheon’s ITAS CLS program. In this capacity, an RDMS solution tailored to the needs of the ITAS CLS program was delivered in February of 2009. GRT was recognized later that year as a Gold Star Performer to the ITAS CLS program.
Previous to her experience at GRT Marla worked for sixteen years at a publisher where she was responsible for the design and development of e-commerce applications. Additionally, she managed the successful integration of these applications into existing customer relationship management, content management, and backend order fulfillment systems.
Marla graduated from the University of New Hampshire with Bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Studio Art.
Joel Maiola
Director, Business Development - International Organizations and Government Programs
With extensive experience in government and public relations, Mr. Maiola joined Global Relief Technologies as a Senior Advisor.
Mr. Maiola served as Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Judd Gregg from January 1992 to 2008, responsible for both the Washington, D.C. and New Hampshire offices and also served as Chief of Staff while Senator Gregg was Governor of New Hampshire. He has volunteered his time and energy to a variety of state and regional efforts including two terms as Trustee for the University System of New Hampshire and currently serves on the NH Political Library Board of Directors.
Colonel Brendan Kearney (USMC Ret)
Director, Business Development - Department of Defense (DOD)
Col. Kearney joined GRT in August 2007. His primary responsibilities include developing DOD business initiatives.
Col. Kearney is a retired US Marine Corps colonel with a distinguished service record and extensive institutional knowledge and contacts related to GRT’s core customers.
Prior to joining GRT, Col. Kearney was Chief of Staff, U. S. Marine Forces, Europe, Stuttgart, Germany, from 2003 until his retirement in 2006. He was an Infantry Officer and an International Political-Military Affairs Specialist. Col. Kearney also held numerous distinguished posts within the Marine Corps, including Chief of Staff, III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, Japan, Commanding Officer, 4th Marine Regiment, Okinawa Japan, and Head, Unified Command & International Issues Branch at Headquarters, U. S. Marine Corps in Washington, D.C.
William J. Vail
Director, Business Development - Forestry, Inland Fisheries, and Wildlife Management
Mr. Vail joined GRT in October of 2009 and is responsible for developing Forestry, Inland Fisheries, and Wildlife Management business initiatives.
In 1998 Mr. Vail was asked to join United States Senator, Susan Collins, state staff where he dealt with a variety of issues and focused on natural resource policy. Mr. Vail retired from Sen. Collins staff in April of 2009.
Mr. Vail began his career by becoming a member of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife as a Game Warden following his military service in Vietnam. Mr. Vail worked his way up through the ranks over a period of 20 years and eventually was appointed by the Governor to be the Commissioner of the state of Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and served in that role for over 6 years.
Mr. Vail retired from his service with the State in 1993 and became the Executive Director of the Maine Forest Products Council, the trade association that represents Maine's forest landowners, loggers, mills and related industries. He worked closely with the legislature, state and federal agencies and the industry to create a better business climate for the forest products industry while advancing sustainable forestry practices.
He attended Paul Smiths College, School of Forestry in NY and resides with his wife in Saco, Maine. He has 2 adult children and 4 grandchildren.
E. Shippen "Ship" Bright
Director, Business Development - Energy and Natural Resources Organizations
Ship has had extensive experience in the private, public and non-profit sectors. After graduating from college he served as a Naval Officer for six years. He then went on to create and manage his own real estate company, serve under two Maine Governors as Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Conservation where he ran the legislative program, and was the Founder and Executive Director of the award winning Maine Lakes Conservancy Institute.
With expertise in environmental and conservation issues, Ship has been developing business opportunities for Global Relief Technologies in a wide variety of sectors to address economic and environmental challenges of the 21rst century.
He is a graduate of Bates College, holds an MBA from the University of Southern New Hampshire and an MPA from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
He has two daughters and two sons.
