SET™ LEADERSHIP
Peter Lierni
Peter Lierni is the co-founder of SET™ and its lead principal. Peter is the originator of the Solution Engineering Framework™ and author of the acclaimed book, Solution Engineering. Peter Lierni believes that the mission of government is too important and its challenges too complex to treat winning competitive government bids as a transactional activity or just a process. Critical thinking is required, particularly when trying to win high-dollar value, solution-based, mission-critical prime government contracts. Peter enables the right thinking to occur to help the right company to win to help the government succeed. His thinking was the basis for the development of SET. Peter is passionate about introducing the value of SET to both the business-to-government (B2G) and business-to-business (B2B) marketspaces.
Peter Lierni has 25+ years of experience in designing and developing winning solutions. Peter has worked in the defense, federal, state, local, and international market spaces. He draws on many influences to assist his clients, including time in the military as well as roles in client delivery, project management, solution development, capture management, and proposal development. Peter holds graduate degrees in business and information systems, as well as several professional certifications that cover systems engineering, project management, security, and proposal development.
Mario Opena
Mario Opena is the co-founder of SET™ and its lead technical architect. Mario’s deep technical acumen and drive is the reason SET went from a concept to an innovative and discriminating capability in the business development lifecycle tool ecosystem. He draws from his rock-solid background in both software and system engineering and time spent as a member of the intelligence community. Mario is passionate about continually improving the value of SET for its end-users in the B2G and B2B marketspaces and continually works on SET’s pre-planned product improvements.
Mario Opena has 20+ years of software and systems engineering experience spanning the intelligence, defense, and federal marketspaces. Mario has an undergraduate degree in computer science and a graduate degree in systems engineering
Doctor Ramprasad Polana
Dr. Ramprasad Polana is the chief artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) scientist for SET™. Ramprasad leads the implementation of SET’s AI/ML roadmap. He is a passionate AI/ML leader with strong expertise in the latest AI/ML technologies, such as generative AI with large language models and transfer learning for small datasets, to deliver innovative and highly reliable AI/ML-based automation solutions that provide strategic business advantage.
Dr. Ramprasad Polana has 30+ years of software engineering experience in various leadership roles in both the commercial and federal market spaces. Ramprasad has managed domestic and overseas research and development projects, as well as commercial product development. His professional working experience includes leading development of AI/ML solutions to automate manually intensive workflows and utilizing natural language processing to consume unstructured text and images in the healthcare industry; leading projects involving cognitive technologies; developing analytics and business intelligence products; and directing vision and image recognition projects for a federal agency. Ramprasad has a doctoral degree in computer science, as well as graduate degrees in both computer statistics.
Scott Donaldson
Scott Donaldson is the chief compliance officer for SET™. Scott’s focus is on ensuring SET’s security posture for its end-users. He possesses extensive expertise in software systems development, information technology (IT), cybersecurity, and program management. Scott is passionate about successful software system engineering.
Scott Donaldson has 40+ years of experience in the defense, federal, commercial, and university marketplaces. Scott’s expertise includes time in the military and senior-level positions in software systems development, IT, cybersecurity, and multi-hundred-million-dollar program management. He has served in a wide variety of technical and management leadership roles including being a military officer, chief technology officer, chief information officer, chief systems engineer, and senior program manager.
Scott Donaldson has co-authored eight books including: Building an Effective Security Program; Enterprise Cybersecurity: How to Build a Successful Cyberdefense Program Against Advanced Threats; and Successful Software Development: Making It Happen, 2nd Edition. Scott has an undergraduate degree in operations research and a graduate degree in systems management. He has taught graduate-level courses since the 1990s in software systems engineering for both American and Johns Hopkins Universities.
Mark Varricchione
Mark Varricchione leads marketplace engagement for SET™. This includes introducing SET to companies that would benefit by using it in support of their competitive pursuits; establishing strategic partnerships; and managing investor relations. Mark is passionate about innovation and helping companies increase their enterprise value.
Mark Varricchione has 25+ years of experience in business development, client delivery, project management, technology strategy, business and growth strategy, merger and acquisition strategy, transformation planning and execution, board operations, revenue, and operations optimization, financial structuring, and program improvement and recovery. Mark has an undergraduate degree in business administration.
