Leadership - PTC Executive Team

James E. Heppelmann

President and Chief Executive Officer

James (Jim) Heppelmann is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of PTC, responsible for driving the company’s global business strategy and operations. During Mr. Heppelmann’s leadership tenure, PTC has assembled the industry’s leading industrial innovation platform and field-proven solutions and services that enable companies to design, manufacture, operate, and service things for a smart, connected world. He also serves on PTC’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Heppelmann has emerged as a driver and thought leader in industrial innovation. Together with Harvard Professor Michael E. Porter, he has co-authored three highly influential articles regarding the transformational impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on business, including the November 2014 Harvard Business Review cover story “How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Competition,” and the companion “How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Companies” published in the October 2015 Harvard Business Review. Their third Harvard Business Review collaboration, published in November 2017, “A Manager's Guide to Augmented Reality,” is a collection of articles that define why every organization needs an Augmented Realty (AR) strategy.

Mr. Heppelmann was named one of “7 IoT Leaders to Watch in 2017” by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and has previously been recognized as “IOT CEO of the Year” by PostScapes, “Technology CEO of the Year” by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, and received the “CAD Society Leadership Award” for his work with the Internet of Things. A dynamic speaker, Mr. Heppelmann has been featured as a keynote presenter at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) events on topics such as “How Smart, Connected Products Are Redefining Manufacturing” and was a featured speaker on “the role of digitization in America's advanced industries” at the Brookings Institution. He has been published and quoted in numerous global business and trade media, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Mr. Heppelmann is a member of the board of directors at SENSATA, a world leader in automotive and industrial sensors and controls, and was recently elected to the MassTLC (Massachusetts Technology Leadership council) Board of Trustees. He also serves as a member of the Dean’s advisory board at the University of Minnesota College of Science & Engineering, is an executive advisory board member of the national FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and has been recognized as one of the “Top 100 CEO Leaders in STEM” by the STEMconnector organization.

Experience

Prior to his appointment as CEO in 2010, Mr. Heppelmann served as PTC’s president and chief operating officer, responsible for managing the operating business units of the company including R&D, marketing, sales, and services. From 2001 to 2009, he served as PTC’s chief technology officer, driving the company’s product vision and strategy, product development, and product marketing and management.

Mr. Heppelmann joined PTC in 1998 when the company acquired Windchill Technology, a Minnesota-based company that he co-founded and served as its chief technology officer. Before co-founding Windchill Technology, Mr. Heppelmann served as chief technology officer at Metaphase Technology.

Education

Mr. Heppelmann attended University of Minnesota, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on computer-aided design.

Andrew Miller

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Andrew Miller is the executive vice president and CFO at PTC. In his current position, Mr. Miller is responsible for PTC’s worldwide Accounting, Financial Planning and Analysis, Tax and Treasury, Investor Relations, and Information Technology.

Experience

Mr. Miller joined PTC from Cepheid, a high-growth molecular diagnostics company, where he has served as Chief Financial Officer since April 2008. While at Cepheid, Miller built world-class finance and information technology teams and a nationally recognized investor relations program.

Mr. Miller’s career also includes financial leadership positions at Autodesk, MarketFirst Software, Cadence Design Systems, and Silicon Graphics. In each role, he helped build and shape strong teams focused on financial strategy and operations. As the Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer of Autodesk, Mr. Miller was part of the team that drove their business transformation effort focused on corporate growth, productivity improvements, and profit expansion.

Mr. Miller began his career at accounting firm Deloitte. Mr. Miller serves on the Board of Directors of iRobot, a leader in delivering robotic technology-based solutions. Mr. Miller also served on the Board of Directors of United Online, a leading provider of consumer products and services over the internet, from July 2014 to July 2016.

Education

Mr. Miller holds a BSC in accounting from Santa Clara University.

Barry F. Cohen, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer

Barry F. Cohen, Ph.D. is the Chief Strategy Officer at PTC. In this position, Dr. Cohen drives strategy development and alignment across the company. He is responsible for PTC’s corporate strategy, corporate development and human resource organizations. Dr. Cohen also leads PTC’s global academic programs and corporate marketing organizations.

Experience

Dr. Cohen joined PTC in January 1998 when PTC acquired Computervision. Prior to the acquisition, he served with Computervision for four years as senior vice president for human development and organizational productivity. Before joining Computervision, Dr. Cohen was the president of Possibilities Inc., an executive consulting firm specializing in organizational change and executive coaching, where he served for thirteen years.

Dr. Cohen has authored or co-authored several books on leadership and organizational change, including The Wellness Sourcebook, Ethical Leadership, Leadership Myths and Realities, and The Possibilities Economy: New Capital Development. He has also published many professional articles and a series of training manuals.

Education

Dr. Cohen earned his doctorate in logic and philosophy of science from the State University of New York @ Buffalo.

Anthony Paul DiBona

Executive Vice President, Strategic Alliances

Anthony (Tony) DiBona is the Executive Vice President, Strategic Alliances at PTC. In this current role, Mr. DiBona is the leader of the PTC and Rockwell Automation alliance, overseeing a team that works closely with key stakeholders from both companies to enable partnership success and ensure customer value.

Experience

Mr. DiBona joined PTC in 1998 and since that time has served as Vice President, Global Business Partner Group, Vice President for Major Account Sales, EVP, Renewal Sales and most recently as EVP, Focused Solutions Group.

Prior to joining PTC, Mr. DiBona served at Data General Corporation, where he managed the U.S. Sales organization. Before joining Data General in 1989, he spent eleven years with Unisys Corporation.

Education

Mr. DiBona holds a master’s in business administration from Bentley University, where he also earned an undergraduate Bachelor of Science, business management degree.

Matt Cohen

Executive Vice President, Field Operations

Matt Cohen is the Executive Vice President of Field Operations at PTC. In this role, Matt is responsible for driving business value and creating a differentiated experience for our customers. He leads all PTC field functions including Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Technical Support, Cloud Services and Professional Services.

Experience

Since joining PTC in 2001, Matt has served in a series of leadership roles across the sales and services organizations, most recently leading the customer success organization. In this role he rearchitected PTC’s approach to delivering rapid time to value and a better customer experience. Within PTC's global services organization, Mr. Cohen has helped set sales, product and training strategy. He has also led the rapid development and roll out of PTC’s cloud strategy.

Education

Mr. Cohen attended Harvard University where he earned a bachelor of arts in Psychology.

Aaron C. von Staats

Corporate Vice President, General Counsel

Aaron von Staats is corporate vice president, general counsel and secretary for PTC. In this position, Mr. von Staats is responsible for worldwide legal and compliance matters, including corporate governance, securities, compliance, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, technology licensing, litigation, employment, real estate and corporate subsidiary management.

Experience

Mr. von Staats was appointed PTC’s General Counsel in 2003 after joining the company in 1997. Prior to joining PTC Mr. von Staats practiced as an associate with the Boston law firm Palmer & Dodge LLP. He began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Paul J. Liacos, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Mr. von Staats is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the American Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association. He also serves as a board member of the not-for-profit organization City Year Boston and as a board member of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston.

Education

Mr. von Staats attended Boston College Law School, where he earned his juris doctor.

He earned a bachelor of arts from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Kathleen Mitford

Executive Vice President, Products

Kathleen Mitford is Executive Vice President, Products at PTC. In this role, Ms. Mitford is responsible for portfolio management, product strategy, and research & development. She leads the Product and R&D organizations and is committed to further enhancing PTC’s leadership role in the IoT and AR markets, complemented by its continued strength in core CAD and PLM offerings.

Experience

During Ms. Mitford’s career at PTC, she has held multiple strategic roles leading the business segments, market research, competitive strategy and vertical teams. She joined PTC in 2006 to drive the retail strategy and developed technologies and systems adopted by major retail chains. As a result, PTC became the industry leader in retail PLM and maintains that leadership market share position today. She later ran PTC’s Corporate Strategy team and helped position PTC for success in the Internet of Things. Ms. Mitford has helped transition PTC to enter completely new industries from the company’s traditional engineering and manufacturing heritage

As PTC heads to the Internet of Things and Augmented Reality, Ms. Mitford’s ability to identify opportunities and threats along with strengths and weakness positions PTC’s Business Segments at a distinct advantage.

Education

Ms. Mitford attended the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA, where she earned a bachelor of science.

Hillary Ashton

EVP, General Manager, Augmented Reality

Hillary Ashton is Executive Vice President and General Manager of PTC’s Augmented Reality (AR) business unit. In this role, she is responsible for all operational aspects of the Vuforia business and its product lines, including executive leadership and vision, strategy, sales, and marketing.

Experience

Before joining PTC in 2018, Ms. Ashton served as SVP of Analytics SaaS solutions at Manthan. In this role, she was responsible for sales, channel strategy, presales, product marketing, and solution engineering. Prior to that role, Ms. Ashton served as Director, Customer Intelligence Sales at SAS, where she led the go-to-market strategy and sales support for US, Canada and Latin America for SAS’s 16 Customer Intelligence (CI) solutions. In each of these roles, she has contributed to expanding market share and increasing revenue.

Ms. Ashton has been quoted in the press extensively and has spoken at various conference and events worldwide.

Education

Ms. Ashton graduated from Franklin & Marshall College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Government.