Industry Expertise

At SSES we are hyper-focused on areas that have a powerful financial and supplier performance impact for our customers. This has enabled us to deliver well over a $1 billion dollars in P&L savings and significant improvements to supplier performance over the last 8 years.

Our areas of expertise include software, hardware, outsourcing, professional services, contingent labor, financial services, software asset management and audit defense, telecommunications, and facilities management suppliers.

Our team consists of highly experienced professionals who prior to working with SSES have had significant industry experience in banking, outsourcing, and IT.

Core Leadership

Thomas Kelly, Managing Director

Thomas has over twenty-five years of sourcing leadership in financial services and IT. He spent twelve years with major financial institutions and prior to that held significant roles at major technology OEMs. Thomas has delivered excellence in sourcing consultancy to executives in some of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Chief Procurement Officer, Wells Fargo / Wachovia. Prior to co-founding SESS, Thomas led the team at Wachovia that focused on enterprise-wide agreements with suppliers and ensured that critical supplier business relationships were focused on Wachovia’s business objectives and governed by best-in-class contracts. Over a two-year period his team delivered more than $950 million in P&L run rate cost savings and significant cost avoidance. Annual spend of $7.5 billion originated in North America, EMEA and Asia.

Head of IT Sourcing, JPMorgan / Bank One. While heading the IT supply chain at Bank One, Thomas was responsible for all IT supplier relationships and negotiations, and was directly responsible for the IT outsourcing/offshore practice.

NCR / AT&T / Gateway / e3mil. Earlier in his career Thomas was President and COO of e3mil, Inc., an on-line media, marketing and sales company with 2,000+ direct marketing associates. Prior to that, he managed the Microsoft relationship and other major supplier engagements for Gateway, Inc. and directed major IT negotiations for AT&T and NCR Corporation.

Education. Thomas has a J.D. from Capital University, a Master’s Degree in International Management from the University of St. Thomas, an STB in Theology from the Pontificio Ateneo Sant’Anselmo (Rome, Italy) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Philosophy from the University of St. Thomas. He is also a member of the State Bar of Georgia.

Paul Kaplan, Managing Director

Paul has an extensive background in SW licensing strategies, compliance, asset management, and contract negotiations.  He assists clients in establishing sourcing strategies that will optimize value, mitigate risk in long-term contracts, and avoid unplanned expense from compliance exposures.

VP of WW Enterprise License Agreements Sales, IBM Software Group. Paul developed the offerings and led the team responsible for negotiating IBM’s largest software contracts. Under his leadership, Enterprise Licensing revenues tripled over nine years and grew to become IBM Software Group’s largest transactional revenue source.

Director America’s zSeries Software Sales, IBM Americas Software Group Sales. Paul led the team responsible for the sales of zSeries software in the Americas, IBM’s largest software brand in its largest market. He substantially grew revenue through implementing innovative strategies during a period when IBM’s software sales were relatively flat.

Early Career. Earlier in his career Paul was a programmer, where he designed and wrote the IBM Retirement Fund System. He was also a financial analyst in the IBM Research Division, where he was awarded an IBM Research Award for his development of an automated financial system. Earlier, Paul was a business unit executive in IBM’s Federal Group where he sold and developed software solutions to the Federal Government.

Education. Paul earned his MBA and B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton.