Leadership

Antonio Pietri

Antonio Pietri

President and Chief Executive Officer

Antonio Pietri is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AspenTech, and also serves on the company’s Board of Directors. Prior to his appointment to President and CEO, Pietri served as Executive Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, where he led global Sales, Sales Operations, Professional Services, and Customer Support & Training. He previously served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Regional Operations, Asia Pacific, based in Singapore and Beijing, China.

Pietri joined AspenTech through the company’s acquisition of Setpoint, Inc. in 1996. At Setpoint, Pietri held a range of sales, services implementation, and consulting roles, where he oversaw integration of AspenTech solutions at European refinery and process manufacturing sites. In 2002, he relocated to Singapore as Vice President, Business Consulting, and was subsequently promoted to Managing Director of the Asia Pacific region.  He began his career at ABB Simcon as an applications engineer focused on advanced control and multi-variable controllers for refining.

Pietri serves on the Chemical Engineering Advisory Board at the University of Tulsa.  He was the 2017 selection for the MIT Warren K. Lewis Lectureship in Chemical Engineering, and is a frequent speaker at industry events.  He holds an MBA from the University of Houston and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tulsa.

Chantelle Breithaupt

Chantelle Breithaupt

Chief Financial Officer

Prior to AspenTech, Chantelle spent 7 years with Cisco Systems Inc. She held multiple leadership positions, most recently as Senior Vice President, Finance driving the Cisco financial transformation to a recurring revenue business model. In addition, she was the CFO responsible for delivering compliant growth for the $13B Cisco Customer Experience divisional business. Previous roles at Cisco include Vice-President, Finance Americas where Chantelle led the $25B Americas division, partnering with the SVP, Americas Sales.

Before Cisco, Chantelle worked with GE where she held progressive, executive global finance roles. She drove finance and business performance by building winning teams, establishing strong partnerships, processes, and accountability. Through her 15 years with GE, Chantelle completed 3 executive finance leadership programs, worked 10 years in Europe and specialized in both Services and Operations/Supply Chain finance. She is Lean/6-Sigma Black Belt trained, and a champion for diversity leadership development.

Chantelle holds an Honors Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada) and is on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Lazardis School of Business & Economics, WLU.

Willie Chan

Willie K. Chan

Chief Technology Officer

Willie K. Chan joined AspenTech in 1982 and serves as Chief Technology Officer, bringing to this role more than 35 years of experience in developing computer software solutions for optimizing the performance of chemical and refining processes. In this role, Chan leads the technology strategy, R&D and quality assurance functions for AspenTech products on a global basis.

Chan was a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ASPEN research program that later became AspenTech, and has held a variety of senior technical and management positions in the company. Most recently, Chan was Senior Vice President, Technology, where he led the establishment of AspenTech’s R&D Centers of Excellence in Bedford MA, Houston TX and Shanghai China. He also drove the integration of aspenONE software products, incorporating molecular modeling, solids process simulation, sulfur recovery modeling, process safety, dock/pipeline scheduling, machine learning and other technologies into the aspenONE suite. He also oversaw the development of the next-generation user interfaces, activation workflows and other technology advancements.

Previously, Chan held a number of R&D leadership positions for Engineering Products at AspenTech, including the integration of the HYSYS family of products and the creation of the Aspen Engineering Suite. He began his career at AspenTech by leading the development of separations and petroleum technologies.

Chan holds Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Manish Chawla

Manish Chawla

Chief Revenue Officer

Manish Chawla is the Chief Revenue Officer for AspenTech, responsible for aligning teams, processes and systems to successfully scale the organization with best-in-class profitability.

Manish is an experienced technology executive, most recently working as the Global General Manager, Industrial Sector, at IBM. In this role, his scope was broad, leading the IBM portfolio growth across a rapidly transforming set of industries that spanned Automotive, Electronics/High Tech, Aerospace & Defense, in addition to his many years of leading Energy, Resources and Manufacturing industries. He co-led IBM’s work around Energy Transition, Sustainability and Industry 4.0 including IBM’s focus on hybrid cloud and the Industrial Edge for Manufacturing and Resources.

Prior to joining IBM in 2008, Manish worked at BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting) from 1999 to 2007 and consulted with several global clients on a variety of transformation initiatives at scale. Before joining KPMG in 1999, Manish worked with Accenture in India and the UK for three years and was focused on manufacturing cost reduction projects as well as ERP implementations.

Manish earned his bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering and immediately matriculated at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad where he obtained his MBA.


Stuart Harris

Stuart Harris

Senior Vice President, Strategy

Stuart Harris is the Senior Vice President, Strategy for AspenTech, responsible for leading strategy development and delivering sustained and differentiated performance. He also leads the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) program and its investor relations function.

Stuart has extensive international experience in automation and asset management within the process industries, including leading strategic planning, global marketing, digital strategy and industry programs. Most recently, he worked as Group President, Digital Transformation for Emerson’s Automation Solutions business, an $11.4B enterprise. While at Emerson, Stuart also led the company’s Plantweb Optics business, the integrated platform for data management and analytics.

Stuart earned a Higher National Certificate, Business and Finance from De Montfort University, in addition to a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing Management and a Master of Science degree in Marketing, from Staffordshire University.

Rasha Hasaneen

Rasha Hasaneen

Chief Product and Sustainability Officer

Rasha Hasaneen joined AspenTech in 2023 as Chief Product and Sustainability Officer with responsibility for the strategy and execution of all product-related activities including product marketing. She leads enterprise-wide sustainability efforts and collaborates across all business units to develop and execute on key initiatives.

Rasha most recently served as Vice President of Innovation and Product Management Excellence at Trane Technologies and the Executive Director of the Center for Healthy and Efficient Spaces. Through various leadership roles, Rasha has transformed the customer experience for companies including Ingersoll Rand, General Electric, SAP, Hitachi, Lucent Technologies and General Motors. Rasha is a seasoned executive with a broad background in product management, product marketing, sustainability, engineering, strategy, planning and lean thinking.

Rasha has an interdisciplinary PhD in Sustainability spanning the chemical engineering, business and public policy disciplines from Texas A&M University, a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Engineering and Management in Mechanical Engineering from McMaster University. She is also a registered Professional Engineer.

Skip Maloney

Skip Maloney

Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

Skip Maloney joined AspenTech in 2018 as SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO).  He is responsible for development and engagement of the company’s diverse global workforce, including thought leadership for the organization’s culture as AspenTech evolves into a new period of growth. Initiatives he is implementing to support this strategy include differentiated talent models and agile organizational methods, building on AspenTech’s strong history of innovation and execution. Skip has more than 25 years of experience leading creative solutions for optimizing global workforce outcomes, with special emphasis on executive coaching, predictive analytics and talent management strategies.

Prior to AspenTech, Maloney served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Netscout Systems, Inc., a $1.5B provider of application, network and cybersecurity performance management software. As CHRO, he designed and led HR strategy for a 3,000+ employee global organization with offices in over 40 countries.  At Netscout, he spearheaded the assimilation of teams and organizations from multiple acquisitions, and led an organizational design strategy that resulted in a more unified executive leadership team.

Previously, Skip was VP of Human Resources at Lake Region Medical, where he was responsible for overall HR strategy. He also led HR functions at Brooks Automation and Mercury Computer Systems, and is a Certified Professional Executive Coach.

Mark Mouritsen

Mark Mouritsen

Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer

Mark Mouritsen joined AspenTech in 2023 as Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer with responsibility for setting the strategic vision, priorities and goals for legal and compliance, aligned with the company’s broader business objectives. He serves as a legal and business advisor to the company’s senior leadership team on the wide variety of legal, regulatory and compliance matters impacting AspenTech and the industry.

Prior to AspenTech, Mark was SVP, Legal – Global Operations at Dell, where he led the legal team supporting the company’s global manufacturing, procurement, logistics, trade compliance and supply chain resilency activities. He spent almost 19 years directing legal matters for Dell across many business units and regions. In 2019, Mark relocated to Singapore to lead the company’s legal team in Asia Pacific, Japan and China. His extensive experience spans a wide range of legal matters, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate governance.

Mark received both his B.A. and J.D. degrees with honors from the University of Texas and was admitted to the bar in Texas.

Nicole Rennalls

Nicole Rennalls

VP and General Manager, AspenTech DataWorks

Nicole Rennalls joined AspenTech in 2022 and serves as Vice President and General Manager, AspenTech DataWorks, which provides flexible data mobility and integrated data management, edge and cloud infrastructure, and a production-grade AI environment to build, deploy and host at enterprise speed and scale, empowering our customers to get actionable insights faster than ever with our next-generation industrial AI solutions.

Prior to AspenTech, Ms. Rennalls was President of Global Traffic Technologies, a subsidiary of Vontier Corporation and maker of traffic priority control systems for municipalities worldwide. She also held leadership positions at Tektronix and Eaton Corporation.

Based in our Houston, TX office, Ms. Rennalls is passionate about inclusion and diversity. As chair of ID&E at Vontier, she helped set their equality goals and implement a multi-year strategy. She brings this focus to AspenTech, along with emphasis on customer insight, innovation, team development and continuous improvement.

She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Steve Santy

Steve Santy

Chief Integration Officer

Steve Santy leads our Business Transformation Office, overseeing and driving strategic priorities across our transformation pillars. He also leads the Emerson Commercial Organization team in AspenTech, which provides enablement to Emerson through go-to-market collaboration and support.

Steve has more than 30 years of experience in leading commercial and operations teams. Prior to joining AspenTech, Steve served as President of Emerson’s Exploration & Production software business unit. Steve joined Emerson in 1998, where he held several global leadership roles in commercial strategy, business development, operations and product development. Before, Steve worked for MTI Analytical Instruments and Andros, Inc.

Steve holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Science in Physical Chemistry from the University of California.

Lawrence Schwartz

Lawrence Schwartz

Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Lawrence Schwartz joined AspenTech in 2018 as SVP and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). He is responsible for Corporate Marketing and brings to AspenTech more than 20 years of experience building world-class marketing organizations for growing companies.

Most recently, Schwartz served as CMO at SoftwareONE, a $7B software and cloud portfolio management company with business in over 80 countries. While at SoftwareONE, he grew press and industry awareness, built a diverse digital demand generation portfolio, rolled out new branding and messaging, led multiple international events, developed thought leadership in a variety of forums, and launched several new offerings to the marketplace. Prior to SoftwareONE, he served as CMO for Attunity, a leading provider of information availability software solutions for the enterprise. Previously, he held senior marketing and product management positions at EMC, E Ink Corporation and Tokutek.

Schwartz is a sought-after speaker at industry conferences and has been quoted in numerous publications. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in Aeronautics and Astronautics, also from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sophia Xu

Sophia Xu

Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

Sophia Xu is Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, responsible for strategic acquisitions and inorganic growth initiatives. She leads internal and external teams in all stages of M&A transaction process including M&A strategy formulation, deal sourcing, business case analysis, due diligence, valuation, negotiation, definitive agreement and board approval.

Prior to AspenTech, Sophia held leadership positions at Progress Software and Verizon Communications. She was part of the Strategy, Corporate Development & Planning team that led the transformation of Verizon from a legacy wireline business into a leading wireless carrier and a diversified player in technology services. Sophia spent the earlier part of her career on Wall Street, advising blue chip corporate clients on acquisition/divestiture/joint venture opportunities, arranging financings of syndicated bank loans, bonds, public and private equity. She was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan Investment Banking in New York and London. Over her career, Sophia has completed over $145 billion of transactions spanning US, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Sophia holds an MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a BA with Honors from Mount Holyoke College.