About us | Akorda - The future of legal contracting

Customer Success

It always starts with the customer. We work tirelessly to solve real world customer problems and ensure we do all we can to help customers achieve success with our products.

Innovation

We are always looking to reimagine and improve the processes our customers are using. We continuously seek out new ways of doing things and fully expect some of these efforts to fail. We try and fall forward and in the end, seek to create a better way for our customers.

Integrity

There is nothing more important than trust. We seek to align our thoughts, words, and actions so that we may always do what we say for our clients, partners, and employees.

Meet our founders

Derek Schueren

Chief Executive Officer

As Akorda’s CEO, Derek works to bring the market together to transform how businesses contract. Previously, he founded Recommind, a big data analytics company where he worked with Global 2000 clients, global law firms, and technology partners in the areas of eDiscovery and Information Access. He is also an active investor and advisor to various start-ups with a focus on enterprise software and artificial intelligence. Derek holds a BS in Molecular Biology from Brown University and a Masters from University of Oregon.

Peter Charles

Chief Technological Officer

Peter leads Akorda’s technology strategy and development. Previously, he was Sr. Director of Product Management at OpenText (Recommind Inc.), with ownership of Enterprise Search and SaaS Infrastructure. As an early member of the Recommind team, Peter led Professional Services, Development and Product teams with a focus on search user interfaces, machine learning and content integration. Peter completed his undergraduate degree at Trinity College and a graduate degree in Information Management & Systems at UC Berkeley.

Kingsley Martin

Chief Contract Scientist

Kingsley guides the development of Akorda’s AI software by creating data-driven methodologies that form the basis of contract science. Kingsley regularly consults with law firms, large corporations, and governments to optimize their contacting processing. Kingsley is also the founder of KMStandards & contractstandards.com. Kingsley served as CIO at AmLaw 100 firms and held strategic planning roles at Thomson Reuters. Kingsley holds law degrees from Oxford University and Harvard Law School.

Meet our advisors

Joaquin Delgado

Joaquin A. Delgado is currently Director of Machine Learning for Groupon, working on search and recommender systems for local e-commerce. Previously, he worked at Verizon on disruptive technologies, including TV recommender systems, media search, and semantics. Prior, he was a Director at Intel Media and CTO at AdBrite, Lending Club and TripleHop. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan and a Computer Engineering degree from Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela.

Jan Puzicha

Dr. Jan Puzicha is VP Product Management for Text Analytics and Discovery at OpenText. Previously, he founded Recommind (acq. OpenText) and served as its CTO and VP Product Management, leveraging his expertise in real-time information optimization and statistical modeling. Prior, Jan held a research fellow position in the Computer Science Dept. at UC Berkeley, where he worked on machine learning problems and on research in graphical models and computer vision. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, where he graduated with honors.

Russ Andersson

Russ Andersson is currently an early stage investor and consultant where he works with early stage companies to define their go to market and capitalization strategies. Previously, Russ has worked as the CFO of startups HintMD, ZyBooks, and AtlasLift Tech where he raised capital and drove revenue from inception to $10M and beyond. Russ founded Nadex, now owned by the IG Group, and Edenventures, the European venture capital fund of the year in 2007. Russ has a BBA (accounting/computer science) from Angelo State University and is a CAIA.

About Akorda