MacLaren "Mac" Cummings, CEO and Co-Founder
Before receiving his Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, Mac Cummings started a software and consulting group called Mindshark Software and Consulting in 1998 from his dorm room during his sophomore year. After graduating from Cornell in 2001, Mac served as CEO, guiding the company to profitability within its first year of operation. During his tenure at Mindshark, Mac succeeded in signing software agreements with Forbes, Money, Seibert Financial and General Electric.

With his sights set on developing better speech applications, Mac next co-founded Terakeet and immediately began creating new and exciting technologies to revolutionize speech deployment. As part of his work with Terakeet, Mac is also co-founder and investor in US based US Beveragenet, a company that is revolutionizing beverage monitoring in the United States and Canada. Cummings is also a founding shareholder in five businesses, including Israeli based TCM Mobile, the first company to create a wi-fi mobile phone. In 2004, Cummings also co-founded CD Technology Partners, which invests in early stage technology companies and ideas.

A pioneer of the speech industry, Mac was a founding member of the VoiceXML forum and has appeared as a featured speaker at industry and academic seminars. In addition, Mac has acted as an expert witness to law firms engaged in technology lawsuits and is currently an expert witness in an international cyber-squatting case. Mac is the youngest ever to be named to the Manlius Pebble Hill Alumni Board and was the youngest ever named to the esteemed Cornell Entrepreneurship Board. Mac is active in local and national politics and has been involved in the technology and fundraising side of local campaigns. Most recently Mac received national attention for his role as Director of Online Finance for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid (February 2008-June 2008). Mac is credited as being part of the largest single day of online fundraising in the history of any presidential campaign ($10M). Mac resides in Syracuse, NY.


Patrick Danial, CTO and Co-Founder
Patrick Danial wasted no time putting his technological skills and talent to work. At just 16 years of age, he built, owned and operated one of the first web hosting companies in New York State. As part of this work, he brokered high-volume, high-dollar advertising and traffic deals before structured banner campaigns and Internet marketing companies became mainstream.

As co-founder and lead developer of Mindshark Software and Consulting, Patrick developed custom software for a roster of multi-national clients. His involvement included building one of New York State's largest ISPs from scratch, along with designing and developing the core messaging platform for one of the nation's leading VoIP companies. He was also one of the architects and lead developers for the first and largest online commercial real estate web site of its time.

Alongside Mac Cummings, Patrick co-founded Terakeet Corporation, where he managed and designed the creation of one of the first commercial, speech-recognition platforms and applications for use among companies such as Verizon and American Express. An initial member of the VoiceXML standard development forum, Danial has spoken at: Cornell University, Syracuse University and Syracuse Technology Garden about voice technologies. Through a broad and deep knowledgebase of most Web, network and enterprise based technologies; Danial has also provided web-service and web-usability consulting for hundreds of national and international companies seeking to improve their web presence. Along with his role as software developer, Patrick has been instrumental in the guiding vision of Terakeet. This work has included designing and managing the development of a real-time, draft beer management system used by leading, national chain restaurants and bars. As part of this project, Danial also wrote two US patents for the draft monitoring system. He has also acted as technical advisor to numerous political projects, both at the state and national levels. Danial’s work also includes technical consulting and expert opinion consulting for legal cases relating to cyber squatting laws and other technically oriented litigations. He attended Syracuse University.


Ralph Torrillo, Director of Business Development
Impressed with Terakeet’s overall offering and ability to deliver tangible services in the growing web strategy market, Ralph Torrillo joined Terakeet in 2005 after several successful years with The Pyramid Companies in Syracuse, New York. With Terakeet, Ralph is mainly responsible for identifying the specific needs of each client and customizing terakeet’s service offering to fit those needs.

Torrillo is a 2002 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey and holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. He was a two-term member of the Manlius Pebble Hill School Alumni Board and was a charter member of Youth Leadership of Greater Syracuse.