Our Leadership

Justin Colson joined Rocket in 2019 as Senior Vice President of Business Transformation. He brings over 15 years of growth strategy and transformation experience with leading industrial sector players. Justin was previously General Manager of the Electric Propulsion Business Unit and strategy leader for electrified and autonomous vehicles at Sensata Technologies.

Justin was formerly a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he led a number of growth strategy and operational programs for large aerospace, automotive, and industrial companies. The majority of his work focused on helping companies grow or pivot for growth in rapidly evolving or disrupting industries. Prior to consulting, Justin was an aerospace engineer at MIT – Lincoln Laboratory, driving and leading several Department of Defense research and development programs.

Justin has a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University, an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and an M.B.A. from MIT – Sloan School of Management.

Matt Deres joined Rocket in 2019 as Chief Information Officer. He brings over 15 years of senior-level transformational IT experience and was previously the Senior Vice President of Information Technology at ACI Worldwide and the Vice President of Global Infrastructure & Operations at PTC. Matt was also the NA Regional Infrastructure Head at Computershare and the Global Hosting Services Manager for Thermo Electron (Thermo Fisher Scientific).

Matt studied in the B.S. of Technical Operations Management program at Northeastern University and also studied in a Registered Nursing program.

Rich Kraska joined Rocket in 2019 as Chief Financial Officer, bringing more than 20 years of experience to the role. Prior to joining Rocket, he was VP of Finance at Western Digital where he led the transformation of the finance organization to support a $25B public company. Rich also held multiple positions at General Electric, including Managing Director at GE Capital and VP of Global FP&A, where he led the planning and analysis of GE’s $24B operational cash flow, all capital allocation, balance sheets, and capital structure.

Rich has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Bentley University, as well as an MBA in Finance from the University of Connecticut School of Business.

Jay Leader joined Rocket in 2014 as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Most recently he was Vice President of IT and Chief Information Officer at Rapid7. Over his 34 year career Jay has served in a variety of IT and consulting positions including management roles in Network/Telecommunications, Business Systems, and Project Management at companies such as iRobot, Nypro Inc., Data General Corp., and Coopers & Lybrand.

He is the former Chairman of the Boston Society for Information Management CIO Roundtable, and was named the 2010 Massachusetts CIO of the Year by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. He was also named one of Computerworld’s 2011 Premier 100 Leaders in IT. Jay is a graduate of Clark University, Worcester, MA, where he earned a BA in International Relations and an MBA.

Tracey Leahy joined Rocket Software in August 2018 as SVP of HR and Chief Human Resources Officer, bringing with her more than 20 years of experience in human resources and organizational development. Prior to Rocket, she was the Global Senior Director of Human Resources at PAREXEL International, where she supported senior leaders and implemented the global people strategy.

Before that, she worked for four years as an Associate Director of HR and Organizational Development for the UK’s National Health Service.

Tracey is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, and an alumnus of both the Dearne Valley Business School and the University of Bedfordshire in the UK.

David Reibel joined Rocket Software in 2013 as Vice President and General Counsel. David was previously Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Aspect Software. He held similar positions at Way Systems, Aprisma Management Technologies, and two companies in Europe.

David has international corporate and commercial transaction experience with public and private companies, as well as capital markets, M&A, licensing and strategic relationships, intellectual property portfolio management, litigation, employment law and risk management experience. He serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, North Shore Technology Council, and North Shore InnoVentures. David holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from Stanford Law School.

Ross Rosenberg joined Rocket in 2019 as Senior Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development. He has led M&A-driven transformations for a number of enterprise and industrial technology companies, including most recently as Chief Strategy Officer/Head of Corporate Development at Belden, a $3 billion communications infrastructure, networking hardware and cybersecurity software company. Ross drove the “re-invention” of Belden from a supplier of cable and wire to a global leader in technology that enables industrial IOT, smart facilities and broadband/5G applications. Prior to Belden, Ross led Strategy, Corporate Development and Global Marketing at First Solar as the company transformed from a $500 million manufacturer of solar panels to a $4 billion global utility-scale renewable energy power plant solutions company. Ross also was a senior executive at Danaher Corporation, where he ran a $500 million division, served as VP, Marketing for a $1 billion division and as Group VP, Strategy & Business Development.

Ross holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Shantanu Ghosh joined Rocket in 2018 as Managing Director and VP of the Centers of Rocket Excellence in China and India. Before joining Rocket, Shantanu spent two years working in the consumer tech space through a startup he founded, [email protected] Technologies. Earlier, Shantanu was country head of product operations for Symantec Corp., spanning three cities and a staff of 4,000. He was also the Global VP for Symantec’s Data Center Security business.

Shantanu has over 25 years of R&D leadership and general management experience in global tech companies where he helped build and grow highly effective & globally distributed R&D organizations. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Allahabad in India. He is a frequent contributor to industry and media publications, and is an avid reader with interests in food, culture, and travel.

Gary Gregory joined Rocket Software in 2012 and leads Rocket's Database Servers and Tools Business Unit. He graduated with one of the first computer science degrees awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gary spent 10 years as the Chief Computer Scientist at Computer Corporation of America, which developed the Model 204 database, and was later acquired by Rocket Software. He was a charter member of the ANSI X3H2 committee, which standardized database languages.

In 1984 Gary joined Progress Software and two years later founded Sirius Software, where he remained as president until joining Rocket.

Patricia Harasta joined Rocket in 2018 as VP of R&D Operations, with a focus on project management, globalization strategy, and governance. She has 19 years of enterprise software experience, with expertise in delivering high-quality software, creating efficiencies, and ensuring predictability. Prior to Rocket, Patricia was Director of Software Engineering at CA, responsible for multiple agile teams within CA’s performance management portfolio.

Patricia holds Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from SUNY Geneseo along with an MBA from Bentley McCallum Graduate School of Business. Outside of Rocket, she is actively involved in the community and leads a STEM team for middle school girls, which helps to develop innovation and collaboration skills.

Puneet Kohli joined Rocket in 2018 as Vice President of Quality and Devops. Prior to joining Rocket, he spent seven years at Dell EMC as Director of Engineering & Quality, where he was responsible for innovation and delivery of Dell EMC's Hyper Converged software product portfolio for the VCE business unit. He helped transform engineering teams globally to follow extreme programming and dev-ops practices.

Prior to joining Dell EMC, Puneet was Director of Engineering at RSA, where he led multiple product teams across a vast portfolio of identity management, compliance, and end-point protection products. He also spent 10 years at CA in the security business, and was responsible for setting up the India office for CA’s security business unit.

Puneet serves as Vice President on the board of Boston-area non-profit ISW. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Northeastern University and a and Bachelor’s of Commerce from Delhi University in India.

Toshi Takahashi joined Rocket Software in 2015 and is the director of software engineering in the Center of Rocket Excellence Japan. Before joining Rocket, he led multiple product development teams in IBM’s Tokyo software development lab. Toshi has nearly three decades of experience in enterprise software development, with expertise in delivering data management tools software. He enjoys alpine skiing and relaxing at hot springs.

Toshi graduated from Tohoku University in 1989 with a Master’s degree in theoretical nuclear physics.