Meet The Team

David J. Kingland is responsible for setting the vision and direction of the company.   Mr. Kingland founded Kingland in 1992, and has guided the company to become a leader in providing software based solutions for some of the largest companies in the world.  Prior to founding the company, Mr. Kingland founded an SEC registered financial services firm and during the last 20 years has also led the creation of financial service, real estate development and video/audio production firms.  Mr. Kingland holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University.  He actively serves on executive boards of Iowa State University and several non-profit organizations.

Todd Rognes is responsible for the strategic direction and governance of the company. Before becoming CEO of Kingland in 2019, Mr. Rognes served as President and CFO of Kingland, joining the company in 1999. Mr. Rognes also serves as a board member for Kingland.  Mr. Rognes is a seasoned leader of private and public software and professional services businesses. Prior to joining Kingland, Mr. Rognes spent 13 years with DocuCorp International, a Texas-based, publicly traded document automation software company and its predecessor company, Image Sciences, Inc. Mr. Rognes held several managerial and executive positions at DocuCorp and was involved in the negotiation and integration of several acquisitions, including the Initial Public Offering of DocuCorp. Mr. Rognes holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Iowa State University and is a Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Rognes serves on executive boards of several community and non-profit organizations.

Tony Brownlee is responsible for all business operations of the company. Mr. Brownlee served previously as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, head of business development, and other management positions driving the company’s product and client growth.  Joining the company in 2003, Tony's work with Kingland began by helping found Kingland's 3rd generation platform that expanded the company into enterprise data management and artificial intelligence software, and has since been instrumental in growing the company across financial markets, public accounting, insurance, retail, and other industries. Tony is recognized as a creative thought leader and “data nerd”, is a frequent speaker at executive level events, and enjoys working with Fortune 500 leadership teams on strategies to advance the use of people, data, and technology. Mr. Brownlee also serves as a board member for Kingland. Prior to joining Kingland, Mr. Brownlee worked in the financial services industry providing consulting services for a top ten global bank and a leading international agri-business company. Mr. Brownlee holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Central College in Pella, Iowa; an MBA from Iowa State University and serves on advisory boards of both institutions, as well as many local, community organizations.

Phil Birkedal is responsible for corporate Infrastructure Technology and DevSecOps, including cloud services, corporate tooling, and internal IT. Mr. Birkedal has been with Kingland, and its predecessor company Kingland Capital, since inception and has extensive experience leading Kingland’s data and compliance focused teams, as well as serving many of the company’s international audit, brokerage, and banking clients. With a background as a Certified Public Accountant, Mr. Birkedal is known for his rigor in creating high quality solutions ranging from complex database solutions to developing, implementing, and operating transaction, commission processing and compliance systems. Prior to Kingland, Mr. Birkedal was the CFO of Kingland Capital and worked extensively with regulators including FINRA, SEC, and various state regulators. Mr. Birkedal holds a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from the University of Northern Iowa and has held a number of SEC/FINRA registrations and licenses including General Securities, Financial and Operations Principal, and General Securities Principal.

Alex Olson is responsible for leading and setting the strategy for our professional services at Kingland, including client engagement, client support and operations, and data services. Mr. Olson has delivered countless complex solutions to our customers, leading cross-functional teams of business analysts, data scientists, project managers, and software engineers. Since starting with Kingland in 1998, Alex has been a leading voice in the industries we serve concerning how to use data as an asset to meet business growth, risk management, and regulatory compliance requirements. As Chief Security Officer, Alex has overall responsibility for security and data protection at Kingland. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University with specializations in electronic business, economics, and finance and he has earned the Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), and other industry certifications.

Ron Jordan is Senior Vice President, Strategic Accounts and Partnerships for Kingland. Mr. Jordan joins Kingland with more than 30 years of experience in the financial industry working with industry-leading organizations such as the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). He served four years as a member of the Financial Research Advisory Committee of the U.S. Treasury Office of Financial Research and on the boards of several financial industry data groups. Jordan led the launch of DTCC's Global Market Entity Identifier utility, the industry's first and largest global Legal Entity Identifier utility, created successful proprietary data businesses both at DTCC and the NYSE, and served as Chairman and Administrator of the Consolidated Tape Association while at NYSE. He will lead the company's work with strategic clients and expand partnerships with industry participants.

Jeff Jacobs is Kingland’s Chief Financial Officer, responsible for managing and overseeing accounting, financial reporting, forecasting, audit and tax. Mr. Jacobs is also responsible for strategic oversight of Kingland’s human resources function. Prior to joining Kingland, Mr. Jacobs was an Audit Manager at KPMG where he was responsible for the coordination and overall management of integrated and financial statement audits of financial services organizations. He also served as the primary campus recruiter for the Des Moines, Iowa office where he led the firms recruiting initiatives at private and public institutions in Iowa. He has a strong knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, PCAOB auditing standards, US GAAP, and SEC reporting requirements. Mr. Jacobs holds a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from Central College in Pella, IA where he graduated Manga Cum Laude and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) licensed in Iowa.

Jason Toyne is the Chief Technology Officer at Kingland, responsible for software solution architecture, technology thought leadership, engineering processes, and platform software delivery. In 20 years with Kingland, Mr. Toyne has been instrumental in the architecture of Kingland solutions related to enterprise data management, enterprise risk and compliance and text analytics.  Jason is recognized as a visionary and innovator in software engineering technologies related to enterprise architecture, big data, SDLC, data science, data integration and DevOps.  Jason is a Sun-Certified Programmer and Developer, and is a featured technical speaker throughout North America.

Matt Good is responsible for Kingland Platform evangelism, architecture, and strategic technologies, including enterprise data management, big data, AI, and cloud computing. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Good has gained a variety of experiences at Kingland, IBM and SPSS in architecting and engineering software solutions and leading teams focused on compliance, risk management, predictive analytics, AI-based enterprise data management automation, and brokerage web and reporting applications. Additionally, Mr. Good has provided his expertise to numerous executives within multi-national enterprises. He has also provided overall leadership within Kingland’s partnership with Iowa State University, advancing Computer Science research within key data management initiatives. Mr. Good has achieved certifications related to Java, master data management development, and IBM technologies and has been a speaker at technical conferences. Mr. Good holds degrees from Iowa State University in Computer Science and Music.

Julie Clark leads the execution of Kingland’s human resources (HR) initiatives, including recruiting, employee engagement, performance management, and the company’s total rewards program. She provides management, leadership, and direction for the HR team in the US, and collaborates with Kingland’s HR team in Dalian, China. Mrs. Clark received her Master’s degree in Human Resources & Labor Relations from Michigan State University. She has experience across multiple industries including healthcare and high-tech/telecommunications where she has provided support and leadership among multiple HR disciplines.

Ben Hayden leads Kingland’s Security and Privacy Operations team, responsible for the day-to-day security of Kingland’s systems and applications. Before coming to Kingland, Ben led a risk-consulting business, managed IT auditors, compliance auditors, and network penetration testers. Ben also has experience managing a security operations center for a large EFT provider. Prior to beginning his cybersecurity career, Ben served as a police officer in Iowa where he spent time both on patrol and in investigations. Ben holds Master’s Degrees in computer engineering and information assurance, both from Iowa State University. Outside of information security, Ben has certifications or specialized training in digital forensics, anti-money laundering practices, and active shooter response.

Shane Jones is Director of IT Security and Privacy Compliance, responsible for managing the Cybersecurity policies with special emphasis on government and regulatory compliance. Prior to Kingland, Mr. Jones was the Operations Manager and Sr. Information System Security Manager for Raytheon Missile Systems, and worked extensively with regulators and inspectors throughout the Department of Defense. He also operated as an inspector for the United States Air Force as well as time spent as a software engineer. Mr. Jones holds a Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology from Graceland University, a Master's of Engineering in Cybersecurity Policy and Compliance from George Washington University, and holds the CISSP certification. 

Jon Loge is the Director and Engagement Leader at Kingland, directing professional services engagement teams as well as leading Kingland’s best practices and corporate standards in software Quality Control. He is responsible for managing customer feature roadmaps and related scopes, along with Customer Relationship Management and communications. Prior to joining Kingland in 2006, Mr. Loge worked for Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, leading teams serving regional and national banking institutions and was a member of their Software Quality Assurance Master Process Team. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Cloud State University with specializations in Computer Information Systems and is a Certified Software Test Engineer (inactive). Mr. Loge serves on many local non-profit organizations and community boards.

Morgan McCarley is the Director of Security Technology and Privacy, responsible for designing technical security controls, testing them, and ensuring they are in place across the Kingland organization and Kingland solutions. In this capacity, he works with various stakeholders across the organization to ensure that security best practices are being followed and that Kingland has an accurate and managed risk posture.

Prior to joining Kingland, Mr. McCarley led the application security program at Wellmark BCBS. He has held security positions at Iowa State University and with the Department of the Navy at the Space and Naval Warfare Command (SPAWAR). Morgan holds an MBA from Iowa State University, a Master of Science in Information Technology from UNC Charlotte, and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Coker University in South Carolina. Morgan is active in the information security community, previously serving as the co-founder and chair of the Working Group on Software Security with H-ISAC. He also maintains his CISSP, CCSP and CCSLP certifications from ISC2.

Lindsay Wetter is the Accounting and Finance Manager for Kingland. She is responsible for managing and overseeing accounting, financial reporting, and forecasting, as well as other corporate functions. Mrs. Wetter obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance and Banking, and Business Administration from Buena Vista University.

Jason Fredericks is an Engagement Leader at Kingland, directing professional services engagement teams. Previously, Jason has done business analysis on several different professional service projects. Mr. Fredericks holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University with Specialization in Management of Information Systems.

Trond Gjendem is Director of Engineering Process Performance, responsible for managing our engineering processes and training, confirming process compliance through audits, and reporting on our engineering and process performance. Additionally, Trond serves as a solution architect at Kingland, having structured several complex software applications and data analytics solutions. Trond has over 25 years of experience in software engineering and information technology; the majority of those years were spent developing solutions for the auditing and regulatory compliance field. Prior to joining Kingland, Trond spent many years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, providing technical leadership for large projects and development teams. Mr. Gjendem holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and a member of the Scrum Alliance. Trond is active in the community, having served on the Technology Association of Iowa’s Board of Directors, the North Iowa TechBrew and TechTalk committees, and several other technology-related initiatives in Iowa.

Mark Nessen is a Senior DevSecOps Architect on the Infrastructure Technology and Operations team, managing and directing continuous improvement of Kingland's cloud infrastructure and customer solutions through the use of DevOps principles and practices. Mr. Nessen has been instrumental in the adoption of DevOps practices at Kingland, using his software engineering background to initiate the implementation. He has been involved with almost all of Kingland's software solutions during his 16 years with Kingland, thus providing him with vast technical experience that teams leverage when solving the most technical challenges. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from Iowa State University.

Colin Ward is an Engagement Leader at Kingland, responsible for directing a number of Kingland’s personal independence clients. Mr. Ward started as an intern in 2017 and worked as a business analyst in the independence space. He has assisted in the effort to bring Kingland processes in compliance with NIST standards and drove the effort to define Kingland’s client engagement process. Mr. Ward received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and Master of Business Administration from Iowa State University.

David P. Spalding is a member of the Board of Directors at Kingland. Mr. Spalding has served as the Raisbeck Endowed Dean of the Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University for the last five years. Before assuming this position, Spalding served for eight years at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, most recently as senior vice president and senior advisor to Dartmouth’s president. Prior to Dartmouth, Spalding had a 29-year career in finance in New York City. He began his career in New York with The Chase Manhattan Bank. He also was a vice president with The First National Bank of Chicago, a senior vice president with GE Capital Corporate Finance Group Inc. and a managing director at Lehman Brothers. He ultimately served as vice chairman of The Cypress Group LLC, a private equity firm that he co-founded and co-managed. Over the years, he has served on the boards of several corporations and nonprofit organizations, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Iowa. He received an Bachelor of Arts in history cum laude in 1976 from Dartmouth and a Master of Business Administration in finance from New York University in 1984.

Chris Ritchie is a member of the Board of Directors at Kingland. He has evaluated, overseen, and financed numerous companies in Abry’s targeted sectors. Chris’ areas of focus have included technology-enabled business services, insurance services, and software. Prior to joining Abry, Chris was a member of the Financial Institutions Group of Houlihan Lokey. Chris is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.