Dr. Allemang specializes in innovative applications of knowledge technology and brings to TopQuadrant over 15 years of experience in research, deployment, and development of knowledge-based systems. He developed the curriculum for Top Quadrant’s successful training series for Semantic Web technologies, which he has been presenting to customers world-wide for four years. Dean has completed a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge as a Marshall scholar, a PhD at the Ohio State University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Scholar, and is a two-time winner of the Swiss Prize for Innovation in Technology. Prior to joining TopQuadrant, Dr. Allemang was the Vice-President of Customer Applications at Synquiry Technologies, were he filed two patents on the application of graph matching algorithms to the problems of semantic information interchange.

Since co-founding TopQuadrant in 2001, Irene Polikoff has been involved in more than a dozen projects, both with government and commercial organizations. She has written strategy papers, trained customers on the use of the Semantic Web standards, developed ontology models, designed solution architectures, and defined deployment processes and guidance. With the evolution of TopQuadrant from a technology consultant to a technology provider, Irene has been playing an active role in requirements and design of TopQuadrant’s Semantic Solution Platform – TopBraid Suite. Irene has over 20 years of experience in software development, technology deployment, and strategic planning. Immediately before starting TopQuadrant, Irene was a Principal in the Knowledge, Content Management, and Portals Practice in IBM Global Services. Prior to that, she was a Senior Development Manager and a Project Executive for IBM worldwide consultant’s tools and methods. Irene has an MS in operations research from Columbia University.