Leadership

Kate O’Neill

Chief Executive Officer

Kate joined SilkRoad in 2015. In 2019, she was appointed Chief Financial and People Officer. Prior to joining SilkRoad, she held leadership positions at private and publicly held technology companies in Chicago and London, UK. Kate spent the first ten years of her career at Deloitte, where she served global clients in the US, Europe and Africa. She holds a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Lilith Christiansen

Chief Experience Officer

Lilith Christiansen brings more than 20 years of consulting experience to SilkRoad, having established a reputation as an industry expert, author and speaker. At SilkRoad, Lilith’s focus is on defining SilkRoad’s long-term growth plans and product innovation are in alignment with our overall goal of enabling people to thrive within a changing workplace. Prior to joining SilkRoad, Lilith served as Vice President of the Organizational Development Practice group at Kaiser Associates, co-leading deep analytical and business performance perspective projects to help leading companies succeed against organizational development challenges. She co-authored the best-selling business book “Successful Onboarding.” It is one of the first books to outline methodologies for creating strategic onboarding programs on a global scale to unlock hidden values from talent bases.

David Lundstrom

Senior Vice President, Engineering

Dave leads engineering for SilkRoad and is responsible for driving the development and innovation of SilkRoad’s industry-leading current and next-gen solutions. With 20 years of experience developing SaaS products and enterprise information systems across a variety of industries, he brings experience in enterprise architecture, product development and technology modernization. Prior to joining SilkRoad, he held a leadership position with Echo Global Logistics, a leading provider of technology-enabled transportation services, where he led a platform modernization. Previously, Dave held several progressive roles within Cision, a PR and marketing SaaS provider, where he led product development and several M&A integrations. He holds an MBA from DePaul University and Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Patrick Zelten

Senior Vice President, Global Client Services

Patrick Zelten serves as Sr. Vice President of Global Client Services. He is responsible for our ability to consistently deliver exceptional implementation results and fully leverage our clients’ investment in our solutions. This includes making sure we remain operationally efficient and our Professional Services Consultants are well-equipped and predictably positioned for success at each engagement.

Before joining SilkRoad, Patrick was the Professional Services lead for the America and the Asia Pacific regions at Forescout Technologies where he was responsible for the sale and successful delivery of professional services projects centered around their cybersecurity products. Previously, he grew and matured the Professional Services organization at Forsythe Technology (now Sirius Computer Solutions), leading an organization of skilled consultants and engineers spanning strategy, security and infrastructure domains. Patrick spent the first 14 years of his career at Accenture, where he held a variety of management positions in the Chicago communications and high-tech practice areas.

Patrick earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame and previously served as an adjunct professor for Northwestern University’s Masters in Information Technology program capstone course focused on the CIO/CTO’s agenda and enterprise application integration.

Michael Lloyd

Managing Director, International Sales

Michael Lloyd leads the International business for SilkRoad and has built out a highly successful and passionate team bringing great experiences and solutions for SilkRoad clients all around the world.

Michael has spent over 15 years in the Software, Technology and Consulting industries with a particular focus on the success of global organisations. Michael and his team appreciate the cultural, language and economic factors governing the complexity of rolling out successful technology programs that reduce risk and provide ROI back to businesses no matter where they are located.

Michael holds a BTech in Optoelectronics from Macquarie University, Sydney and is an active board member of several grass roots sporting organisations.

Terry Lyons

Vice President, Sales

Terry serves as Vice President of Sales and is responsible for building and developing teams to build relationships and deliver solutions that meet clients’ strategic goals. She has over 20 years of experience in working with enterprise and Fortune 500 clients in the professional and financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail and government contracting within the HCM space. Terry has worked in enterprise sales roles at various companies including SilkRoad, WageWorks, Paychex and Iron Mountain. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Communications Studies from Towson University.

Karl Fruecht

Senior Vice President, Operations, Business Development and Marketing

Karl Fruecht is responsible for Business Development, Marketing and driving operational efficiency. Prior to joining SilkRoad, he held executive roles in Sales, Marketing, E-Commerce, Technology and Management and created award-winning programs to drive team-based improvement in sales, process and performance. He brings experience in turn-arounds, start-ups, modernization, and expansion into new markets. Karl is co-founder of Uncharted Learning NFP, which delivers entrepreneurial and coding curriculum in high schools throughout the United States. He serves as President of The DASH to Cure Diabetes, Inc., and has served with Hospice of Northwest Chicago, Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, Barrington Area Community Foundation and is a Sustaining Board Member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He holds a BA in Communications from Northern Illinois University.