Roy Leban Email & Phone Number

Founder and Board Chair.Created the first interactive puzzle ebooks and the first ebookstore for puzzles.• As CTO, created product design and software architecture, established software development process. Hired engineering team; managed team using agile methodologies; planned, designed, and led implementation of entire product line.• Designed and implemented major parts of: the Puzzazz puzzle engine which supports hundreds of types of puzzles; TouchWrite with Auto Pencil, Puzzazz’s handwriting recognition system based on machine learning techniques (GeekWire 2013 Innovation of the Year); and content pipeline, publishing tools, and cloud service. Designed and published the ipuz standard for puzzle publishing.• Launched 6 major versions of the Puzzazz app for iOS with more than 100 puzzle books of all types including crosswords (traditional, cryptic, variety), Sudoku, KenKen, acrostics, cryptograms, logic puzzles, drop quotes, and many unusual and unique puzzles previously solvable only on paper.• As CEO, defined mission and vision, created the business model, raised capital, hired a team, did biz dev with independent authors and partners, managed the business of the company. Achieved industry-leading metrics in revenue per active user, long-term customer value, usage per day, customer satisfaction, customer conversion, and retention.

Startup incubation; software architecture, design, and development consulting; user experience design and consulting; organizational consulting. In addition to Puzzazz (below), highlights include:• Ported applications to run natively on Apple’s M1 processor for a Fortune 500 software company.• Designed and built a custom multi-tenant shopping cart system and database for multiple clients.• Designed and built an optimized constraint-based problem solving system for a set of domain-specific problems for a startup.• Designed and implemented a large-scale web application development and customization system for an S&P 600 company.• Created a high-performance instrumentation system for a petabyte-scale database and distributed web service for a Fortune 100 company.• Created a HIPAA-compliant database encryption system for a startup.• Designed and architected an advanced internet/intranet search system (acquired by Zetta Research).• Built FriendMosaic, a custom photomosaic service and web site (acquired by Mosaically).• Hardware consulting includes: UX design for consumer products company, UX design for a medical devices company with “headless” devices connected to a smartphone interface.

Personal private social networks for friends and families. Responsible for all aspects of user experience, from planning and conceptualization to implementation. Led the redesign for Sampa v2, a new user interface for site owners, administrators, and contributors, resulting in a doubling of engagement by site owners, and Sampa v3, a new, highly engaging user experience for site visitors.

Designed and built platform for adaptive online educational software from the ground up, initially launched in DreamBox Learning K-2 Math. The platform provided for the creation and delivery of highly flexible and adaptable educational content over the Internet, which is automatically tailored to student needs as they use the system. Personally designed and architected adaptive learning engine for in-lesson adaptation, lesson navigation, and individual assessments based on educational standards. (Acquired by Charter Fund.)

Redmond, Washington, Us

• Led the development of client user interfaces for Office collaboration including designing core component UI and managing overall UI design and partner relationships.• Convinced the Passport team to add delegated administration, which became Microsoft Accounts.• Designed and architected the authentication and security system for the NetDocs hosted service and bCentral Communications Center. Led a project to understand, measure, and improve the scale of the service.• Managed the design and implementation of a server-client notification architecture.• Designed a pen and handwriting input system for a mobile productivity suite.• Led data access pages team for Access.

Designed and implemented SaaS system with voice input for calendaring and group coordination; built a handwriting-based user interface for personal communicators (acquired by AT&T); redesigned a customer management system for IBM, saving a $150M project; led design, architecture, and development of FullWrite word processor and Globetrotter Web Publisher.

Entrepreneurship

Computer Science / Cognitive Science

Bs, Computer Science