THE SILICON PUBLISHING TEAM

About Silicon Publishing.

Silicon Publishing was founded in 2000 by Max Dunn and Alissa Whitney, and has evolved to include a first-class group of software engineers, several of whom worked on the Adobe InDesign product.

World’s leading provider of Adobe
InDesign Server solutions

Thanks to the aggregation of unique talent from around the world, we have grown to become the world’s leading provider of Adobe InDesign Server solutions, with deep capability for extending Adobe InDesign, InDesign Server, and other Creative Cloud applications. Some of the key contributors to our success are listed below.

Max Dunn

Co-Founder, President

Max Dunn is the President of Silicon Publishing, having founded the company with Alissa Whitney in 2000. He combines energy, passion and visionary leadership with deep technical expertise, driving our collaboration with dozens of industry partners and guiding the delivery of sophisticated solutions for over a decade.

Before founding Silicon Publishing, he was Director of Software Development at Bertelsmann Industry Services, where he led the implementation of publishing solutions for a wide range of clients including Hewlett Packard, Aetna, CIGNA, Prudential and others.

Alissa Whitney

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

Alissa Whitney is CTO of Silicon Publishing, having co-founded the company with Max Dunn in 2000. She combines business and technical expertise in her leadership of our engineering teams, as well as inspiring our strategic vision and overall growth strategy.

Earlier in her career, Alissa developed custom publishing solutions as a member of Bertelsmann Industry Services. She combines an entrepreneurial spirit with a technologist’s love of innovation.

Olav Martin Kvern

Senior Solutions Architect

Olav “Ole” Kvern is Senior Solutions Architect at Silicon Publishing, as well as leader of InDesign Automation technology.

Before joining Silicon Publishing, Ole blazed trails with Visio, Aldus, and Adobe, where he made a name as one of the leading lights on the InDesign development team from ground zero. He developed InDesign scripting, then documented and popularized these innovations for the global user community.

Brett Kizner

Director of Product

Brett Kizner leads Silicon Publishing’s engagements with customers from pre-sales to delivery. He works with the business and technology teams to ensure the solutions we are delivering exceeds customer expectations.

Before joining Silicon Publishing, Brett led the development and implementation of editorial workflow and InDesign automation solutions for multiple Fortune 500 companies including McGraw-Hill Education. Originally a photographer, Brett combines his knowledge of the creative process and technology to provide a holistic view of the end-to-end publishing process.

Michael Easter

Senior Computer Scientist

Michael Easter is the creator of Silicon Connector, a product built upon his intimate knowledge of InDesign extensibility.

Before Joining Silicon Publishing, Michael served for nine years on the InDesign Product team as a senior computer scientist. Major accomplishments at Adobe include leading the redesign of InDesign’s linkage architecture, abstracting InDesign’s file handling architecture to allow a consistent API for multi-platform file handling, as well as the redesign of InDesign’s print UI and backend printing engine.

Hayden Jones

XML Solutions Architect

Hayden Jones spent over a decade as Silicon Publishing’s XML Solutions Architect, specializing in SDXML design as well as Adobe InDesign scripting, defining the magic document model that reconciles web and print. While Hayden has passed away, his work lives on at the very core of our software: we would not have a Silicon Designer product without his phenomenal contribution.

Before joining Silicon Publishing, Hayden built an outstanding track record in technical publishing at Xerox, including pioneering the composition, production and programming of text-processing scripts, plug-ins, and stand-alone apps.

Rich Gartland

Senior Software Developer

Rich Gartland is the lead on our “Template Editor” application, a key component of many of customized web-to-print and database publishing solutions.

Before joining Silicon, Rich was a Senior Computer Scientist at Adobe, part of the InDesign team from 1.0 all the way through InDesign CS5. Previously, he served with distinction on the Aldus PageMaker team. His engineering innovations are recognized in three U.S. patents in page layout and composition technology, plus additional patents pending.

Marty Mickelson

Chief Information Officer

Marty Mickelson focuses on process improvement and automation within Silicon Publishing and with customers. He’s had experience with Silicon Designer, Silicon Connector, and other offerings across the company. His thirst for learning allows him to be adaptive to the ever-changing needs of new clients. By thinking outside the box, his contributions to the Silicon Publishing team enhance the company value to customers in many ways.

Before joining Silicon Publishing, he spent nine years with Adobe in quality assurance and as a software developer. Marty brings insight and broad experience to each engagement.

Matt Harshman

Software Quality Engineer

Matt Harshman is lead Software Quality Engineer at Silicon Publishing, where he plays a central role in quality, user acceptance and product certification.

Before joining Silicon Publishing, Matt was a Senior Software Quality Engineer at Adobe, where he was involved in five major product releases spanning more than a decade. His expertise includes White Box, Grey Box and Black Box testing strategies using JavaScript, Visual Basic, AppleScript, Java, XML, SOAP, as well as use of in-house automation tools.

Jacqui Tully

Strategic Alliance Manager

Jacqui Tulley is Strategic Alliance Manager of Silicon Publishing, where she plays a pivotal role in business planning, project management, client relationship management, process improvement and contract development.

Before joining Silicon Publishing, Jacqui was Director of Client Services at Digital Formatting Services, where she focused on client & production management, and her contributions in sales & marketing were instrumental to that company’s growth.

Andrew Brennan

Product Manager, Silicon Connector

Andrew Brennan manages our Silicon Connector product in close collaboration with our senior leadership, as well as domestic and international partners. He also plays a delivery role in Silicon Designer and Paginator engagements.

Before joining Silicon Publishing, Andrew consulted for more than two decades with clients on a global basis in a wide range of industries, including financial, educational publishing, and government.

Tommy Owen

Director of Media

Tommy Owen is our newest addition to the team and focuses primarily on our graphic and visual assets, such as our website, marketing videos, print collateral and UI design.

Before joining Silicon Publishing, Tommy ran his own design shop and managed an assortment of projects including application design, video production, brand development and more. Tommy has over 20 years print design experience and was a great fit for our team.