Management Team

Michael X. Zirngibl
President & CEO

Michael is the Founder and President of Angel.com and is responsible for the company's business, product and technology strategies.

A prolific industry speaker, Michael holds numerous voice messaging patents and continues his track record of technology innovation. Driven by his vision to make speech applications as ubiquitous and easy-to-use as the Internet, he established Angel.com - the fastest growing provider of turnkey speech and IVR solutions as a service. To date, more than 1,600 customers have implemented hundreds of voice applications from virtual receptionists and virtual call centers to interactive polls for grassroots activism.

Prior to Angel.com, Michael led product management for MicroStrategy Inc.'s Broadcaster and Telecaster voice messaging products. In addition, he was the founding partner of an Marketing and IT consulting firm in Munich, Germany. He holds a master's degree in business administration from Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. His master's thesis investigated innovative marketing strategies for new communication networks, such as one-to-one personalization based on real-time analysis of customer behavior.

Sam Aparicio
Chief Technology Officer

Sam Aparicio is Chief Technology Officer at Angel.com and is responsible for the company’s strategic product, technology, and operations initiatives.

From its origins, Sam has spearheaded the effort to turn Angel.com into a world-class voice automation platform, addressing user needs with technology innovation. Under his product leadership, Angel.com has grown its user base to more than 1,600 businesses and its revenue by more than 100% on a yearly basis.

Sam specializes in next-generation telecom services, the SME market, on-demand business delivery, product design and technology mananagement. Sam is particularly interested in Voice 2.0, and wants to make it a reality in the marketplace. Imagine a world where you can incorporate voice-driven and phone functionality to any business application, where the phone experience is just another channel to interact with users, and where system responses are highly personalized and data driven. Imagine the combination of Web Services, Voice Over IP and Rich Internet Applications. A world where you don't have to be a telecom specialist to extend a business process to the phone. Imagine a rich array of pre-built voice services that you can mash up together with your existing business processes to achieve new heights of interaction with customers, employees and partners. Imagine tapping into the power of the re-writable web from the telephone. That is Voice 2.0.

Prior to Angel.com, Sam was a developer at investment bank Barclays Capital in London. He holds a bachelor's degree in Classical Studies from Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Manchester, U.K., where he specialized in Artificial Intelligence.

You can find more about Sam on LinkedIn, at the IVR Blog, and on his personal blog.

Steven R. Brown
Vice President, Client Services

Steve brings over 10 years of experience to the Angel team with a diverse background ranging from real-time software development to field sales with Global 2000 clients. Steve's combination sales experience with a technical background allows him to see Angel from the customer's perspective, maximizing the impact of Angel's technology for its customers and partners.

Steve joined the Angel.com team shortly after its inception to lead the execution of the most critical components of the business. Initially, Steve led both Product Management and the Engineering Team, guiding the development of the product until the first external release in 2001. As the priority of the venture then shifted from product development to business development, Steve stepped up to drive strategic partnerships and distribution strategy. Before joining Angel.com, Steve led sales consulting for MicroStrategy, Inc. in New York City, working with clients such as NBC, barnesandnoble.com, and Verizon. Steve holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, both from the University of Virginia.

Dave Rennyson
Vice President, Sales

Dave Rennyson comes to Angel.com from Spirent Communications, where he held positions as both Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of Sales. As VP of Marketing, Rennyson developed and launched Spirent’s IP services, field force management and DSL solutions. As VP of Sales, he formulated account strategies and designed solutions for large telecommunications carriers including Verizon, BellSouth, Cincinnati Bell, TelMex, and Puerto Rico Telecom.

Prior to joining Spirent, Rennyson was Vice President of the Network Construction and Implementation Group at Zephion Networks, Inc., where he helped lead the company’s business development and strategic alliance efforts. He also oversaw the creation and deployment of a national OC-12 network, as well as the construction of metro fiber networks and backbone hubs spanning 28 cities across the United States. Previously, Rennyson served in a variety of capacities at Verizon, including Director of Operations.

Rennyson received a Bachelors Degree with honors in Economics from James Madison University. As a Rotary Scholar, he completed his Master’s Degree of Science in Information Technology at the Engineering and Computer Science Colleges of University College, London; and Rennyson also earned an MBA at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

Ashish Soni
Vice President of Technology and Operations

Ashish is an accomplished technical and business professional with more than 10 years of experience developing and deploying technology solutions. As the Vice President of Technology and Operations, Ashish is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Angel.com IT, engineering, and operational functions, including technology development, data center operations, and quality management.

Ashish joined Angel.com at its inception, and was instrumental in the initial development, testing and deployment of the Angel.com product and technology infrastructure.

Prior to joining Angel.com, Ashish oversaw quality assurance for the award-winning Microstrategy 7 Intelligence Server, Engine, and COM APIs. Ashish holds a Master of Engineering degree in Computer Science from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Albright College.

Yuhong Wen
Chief Architect

Yuhong is a well accomplished professional with extensive experience in both academic and industry software development. As the Chief Architect of Angel.com, Yuhong is responsible for overseeing Angel.com system architecture design, software development, technology adoption and system deployment. He is also responsible for building the highly available and scalable Angel system to support the fast growing business.

Prior to joining Angel.com, Yuhong served as an associated professor in Tsinghua University, China, and a research scientist at Northeast Parallel Architecture Center at Syracuse University, leading the research on high performance distributed computing. Yuhong holds a Ph.D, Master of Science and Bachelor degree in Computer Science at Tsinghua University, China, major in parallel and distributed computing technology.