Ralph Nickl
Co-Founder and CEO
Ralph Nickl has more than 25 years of experience working with startups to deliver business solutions, software products and consulting services to enterprise, law firm and government clients. With earlier roles spanning technical architect, strategic consultant, and senior sales executive for companies like Accenture and First Advantage, Ralph has directly supported litigations, investigations, and eDiscovery implementations.
As a serial entrepreneur, prior to launching CanopyCo, Ralph co-founded Global Colleague, a boutique eDiscovery and document review company. During this phase of his career, Ralph advised government entities, service providers, and software manufacturers on the application of ediscovery technology to support litigation, investigations, and public records responses. Ralph’s experience in using technology to find personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) exemptions under these public record laws made post-data breach response for GDPR, HIPAA, FERPA, and similar laws an obvious choice for Canopy’s first product.
When not leading Canopy, Ralph spends his spare time with his family hiking, foraging for mushrooms, and baking bread.
Oran Sears
Co-Founder and CTO
Oran has been in the software industry for more than 15 years and he has worked for companies such as Discovery Channel and Lockheed Martin. As a Certified eDiscovery Specialist (CEDS), much of Oran’s career has involved software solutions for the eDiscovery, litigation support, information governance, and cyber investigations markets. His experience spans everything from implementing large projects to designing an industry-leading eDiscovery suite for which he owns one patent with a second patent pending. Driven by a passion to innovate, Oran repeatedly delivers quality applications and programs that solve real problems for end users.
When not developing software, Oran is actively contributing to his community as the founder and leader of two non-profit organizations. Fully Involved, Inc. provides financial support to families affected by house fires, and Helping Heroes is dedicated to raising awareness and pushing for legislation to assist first responders with dealing with job-related stress such as PTSD. A native Texan, Oran naturally enjoys everything outdoors, from camping, hiking, and boating with his wife and two sons, to smoking BBQ in the backyard.
Adi Elliott
Chief Revenue Officer
Adi Elliott brings more than a decade of leadership experience in the software and services industries to his role leading Canopy’s global sales and marketing functions. Adi has extensive experience building and leading high-performance marketing, sales, product, and strategy teams. He’s led multiple marketing, sales, and product teams recognized for innovation, and has deep experience in business operations, strategic planning, and corporate development.
Prior to joining Canopy, Adi led strategy for Epiq’s global ediscovery business. He joined Epiq via the acquisition of Iris Data Services, where he led product and marketing. Before his time at Iris, Adi founded and led Relativity’s marketing and enterprise sales teams.
In his free time, Adi enjoys hiking with his wife in the Pacific Northwest, playing basketball, and cheering for the Portland Trail Blazers. And thanks to his three sons, he somehow became pretty serious about playing Pokémon Go.
Martin Borak
Chief Financial Officer
Drawing upon previous experience as CFO, Treasurer, Controller and Director for various U.S. and international companies, Martin Borak is responsible for all financial matters at CanopyCo LLC. Martin has financial, management, operational, and strategic planning experience spanning diverse business environments, including large public companies and top 50 financial institutions, venture capital-backed startups, and turnaround situations. He is a proven leader in corporate finance, M&A, demanding environments such as private equity, and complex high-growth companies that require organizational savvy. Martin has been recognized for his creativity, strong technical ability, leadership and motivational skills, as well as sharp business fundamentals.
Martin earned his MBA from Duke University, graduating in the top 10 percent of his class, and received a BA with high distinction from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society.
In his spare time, Martin enjoys his varied musical tastes, cooking, and his beloved Washington Nationals.
Caroline Gifford
Customer Success and ISMS Manager
Caroline joined Canopy’s team in 2020 to fulfill the role of Customer Success and Information Security Manager. With over a decade of experience in the corporate risk management and legal field, Caroline is responsible for maintaining and enhancing Canopy’s information security program. In addition, within the customer success role, Caroline acts as liaison between customers and the product development team to foster an environment of collaboration and learning where application users know their opinions and experiences are vital to the continued joint success of Canopy and its partners.
Caroline resides in Ft. Worth, TX with her husband and two children. In her spare time, she can be found cheering on her daughter and son in all that they do, from the ball field to the school theatre.
Alanna Dent
Product Manager
Alanna Dent guides Canopy’s Data Science team on the linguistic characteristics of PII from around the world. Alanna holds a Master’s Degree in Terrorism and Political Violence from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she gained tremendous experience in data mining for terrorism research. Prior to earning her degree, Alanna spent two years in Zambia in the Peace Corps, where she taught English, among other subjects.
Alanna is fluent in Russian and holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Russian Language from Trinity College. She studied abroad in Moscow, Russia with Middlebury College at Russian State University for the Humanities and at The Davis School of Russian at Middlebury College. Despite not having studied in a technical area, Alanna has proven that the skills required to learn new languages can also be applied to technology.
Alanna enjoys traveling. She has been to 44 countries and her life goal is to live in a van by the river, and to be able to work from anywhere in the world.