Management Team

Sharon Gardner, Co-Founder and President

Ms. Gardner has more than 15 years experience in the enterprise software industry with a focus on business-to-consumer and business-to-business retail commerce. With the creation of VendorNet, Ms. Gardner is responsible for pioneering the concept of virtual warehousing by leveraging the Internet and industry best practices to cohesively connect retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers to their suppliers.

Prior to founding VendorNet, Ms. Gardner served as Vice President, Marketing and Product Management for Ecometry Corporation, a leading enterprise order management software provider. Ms. Gardner also held a seven-year tenure as Vice President of Client Services responsible for the company's client support, training and installation functions. Ms. Gardner was an integral contributor to the company's growth and success - from start-up to industry-leading status, building, and managing a staff that grew from 5 to 200, a client base that increased from 0 to 400, and company revenue that reached $50 million.

Ms. Gardner also served as Group Director, Client Services at Acxiom Corporation, a leading direct marketing services firm. There, Ms. Gardner was instrumental in building and maintaining a strong client base for Acxiom's catalog fulfillment services division, which provided telemarketing, order management, data processing, and warehouse fulfillment services to major retail and catalog companies.


Michael Helm, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Mr. Helm is the primary architect and chief engineer of the VendorNet Commerce Suite platform and is instrumental in driving the evolution and development of its core technologies. Mr. Helm is a supply chain expert with more than 13 years experience designing and delivering technologies to the retail industry.

Prior to co-founding VendorNet, Mr. Helm managed a successful technology consulting firm, which provided retail system design, development, and deployment services. Mr. Helm's company supported a number of marquee accounts with new and innovative technologies that enabled real-time collaboration between a retailer's catalog, stores, and return/repair operations. Mr. Helm held top research and development positions at Ecometry Corporation where he created new architectures for the Ecometry Order Management System on Microsoft's NT Platform. He also formerly consulted for DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), and held logistics management positions at First National SuperMarkets.

Mr. Helm has a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering and a Master's Degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute of Massachusetts.