We are a team of very experienced, former senior Gartner analysts and executives who offer our knowledge and expertise to help technology companies improve their relationships with the analyst community and better engage with the market.

We work as an extension to your own team to help you prepare for analyst assessments, deliver briefings and increase your marketing and sales engagement success. We’re not afraid to get our hands dirty.

  • We understand what the analysts want to see from you, because we were senior analysts ourselves.
  • We know the best way for you to present yourselves to make your company stand out with analysts and prospects.
  • We advise you on what information you need to share, at what time and in what format, in order to minimize disruption to your business.
Joel Wecksell
Joel WecksellManaging Director
Joel has 35 years of experience in the technology industry. He spent 11 years at Xerox before moving to Gartner, where he worked for 18 years in a variety of senior roles, including group vice president for the global software research group and head of analyst training. Most recently Joel has used his extensive experience as an analyst to help companies communicate their strategic vision and demonstrate credibility in their market place.
Simon Levin
Simon LevinManaging Director
Simon spent the first 10 years of his career in software marketing before joining Gartner in Europe as a senior analyst. He led various Gartner research teams, including the global market research business of 380 professionals. After leaving Gartner, he led the global research organization for TowerGroup (a division of Mastercard) and established their overall European operations. Simon also served for 3 years as a board member for the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR).
Jeff Comport
Jeff ComportSenior Analyst
Jeff has over 30 years’ experience both as an analyst and working for technology vendors. During his 15 years as a Distinguished Gartner Analyst, Jeff was a member of the Gartner Research Council and founded several services and Magic Quadrants. He has also worked as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Lawson Software, where he was responsible for product strategy, marketing, product management, pricing, public relations and analyst relations.
Adam Daum
Adam DaumSenior Analyst
Adam has spent almost 30 years as an analyst in the technology industry, including 11 years at Gartner. He has conducted innovative studies on technology adoption to help vendors improve their business planning and strategic marketing. He has helped clients understand the impact of a range of consumer technologies, particularly in the media and financial services industries. And more recently, he has focused on disruptive technologies and ecosystems in areas as diverse as mobile app stores, digital payments and semantic search.
Anne Lapkin
Anne LapkinSenior Analyst
Anne has 25 years of experience in technology roles. She has worked as an IT leader in a wide variety of industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, process and discrete manufacturing, insurance, telecoms, retail and wholesale distribution. After joining Gartner in 2003 as a Research Vice President, she led the Information Management research practice where she was responsible for planning and overseeing all research in this space.
Jane Doorly
Jane DoorlySenior Analyst
Jane worked at Gartner for more than two decades, first as an analyst and Gartner Fellow and later leading global teams. For five years, she held the key role of Group Vice-President for Security, Compliance, Governance and Risk. She then spent five years at IDC, managing the company’s software and services research and six of IDC’s vertical industry teams. She was also responsible for launching IDC’s research programs in business intelligence, analytics and digital transformation. Before Gartner, Jane specialized in high tech research and worked for Alliant, a legendary supercomputing pioneer.
Andrew Butler
Andrew ButlerSenior Analyst
Andrew Butler, former chairman of Gartner’s European Symposium, has a vast range of experience in the tech industries. He was a distinguished analyst at Gartner for 20 years and was the author of many influential Magic Quadrants, Cool Vendor reports, Vendor Ratings and Market Clocks. He also chaired the European Data Center Summit for more than a decade and served as lead analyst for several major data centre vendors. Before joining Gartner in 1997, Andrew spent 14 years at Hewlett Packard in senior systems engineering and marketing roles in the UK and Germany.
Julie Short
Julie ShortSenior Analyst
Julie Short has over 30 years of experience in the technology industry, including 12 years’ consulting experience with EY and Deloitte. She spent nine years at Gartner, where she was a Research VP and led the research for many Magic Quadrants and Market Guides. Most recently, Julie has been in charge of BearingPoint’s analyst relations and thought leadership activities.
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan EdwardsSenior Analyst
Jonathan spent 14 years at Gartner where he was Research VP in the healthcare team. Based initially in the US he moved to the UK, becoming the lead healthcare analyst for international markets. He then spent 4 years at the Advisory Board Company where he launched and led a global research and advisory service serving healthcare providers and vendors. Subsequently he ran an independent consulting firm, providing advice to IT vendors and service providers on product strategy, marketing and communications.
Ayal Tirosh
Ayal TiroshSenior Analyst
Ayal Tirosh was a Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner, where he coordinated application security research and authored many Magic Quadrants and other branded research documents. Before joining Gartner, he held a senior management position at AirGator, in charge of the NAVAir EFB product, a sophisticated portable computer system that provides electronic flight bag facilities to help pilots with flight planning, navigation and checklists. Clients of The Skills Connection will benefit from Ayal’s skill and experience in helping companies articulate both their capabilities and their strategic vision.
Chris Wilson
Chris WilsonSenior Analyst
Chris is a vastly experienced Enterprise Architecture specialist, and a former senior analyst at Gartner, where he spent six years as a Research Director and a key member of the EA team, co-authoring many Magic Quadrants. Before Gartner, he worked for 21 years for BP, National Australia Bank and the TSB, mainly in senior Enterprise Architecture roles. These jobs involved elements of business strategy and planning that went far beyond the IT space and included handling many high-value RFIs and ITTs. Since leaving Gartner in 2015, he has drawn on his years of practical, hands-on experience to help companies large and small define data governance policies and shape their IT career development structures.
Richard Marshall
Richard MarshallSenior Analyst
Richard is a battle-hardened entrepreneur who also spent five years as a star analyst at Gartner. Richard spotted the potential of smartphone apps very early on and founded Rapid Mobile Media, one of the first specialist firms dedicated to mobile. After 18 years of start-ups and growth companies, he switched tracks and joined Gartner to run its Application Design and Development team, producing many important Magic Quadrants and research notes and winning Gartner’s 2015 awards for both Thought Leadership and Inquiry Excellence. His post-Gartner career has focused on advising a broad range of emerging technology vendors.
Dave Cappuccio
Dave CappuccioSenior Analyst
Dave Cappuccio has a lifetime of experience in all aspects of IT, from data center design and management to virtualization, cloud, and edge strategies. As a manager, he has held full P&L responsibility for business units with revenues of $600m and headcounts of up to 2000. In 30 years with Gartner, Dave led many different teams, covering everything from appdev and knowledge management to data centers and networking, and was the creator and chairman of Gartner’s Infrastructure, Operations and Cloud Strategies conferences.
Paolo Malinverno
Paolo MalinvernoSenior Analyst
Paolo Malinverno spent 24 years as an analyst, writing numerous Magic Quadrants, chairing the firm’s application conferences and leading Gartner’s API strategy research and the Full Life Cycle API Management MQ team, before joining Salesforce as SVP for Strategy and Innovation. Alongside his application integration and infrastructure expertise, Paolo has a deep practical knowledge of all aspects of automation, from the specifics of process mining, low-code platforms, and IoT technologies to business process management and robotic process automation.
Ron Ariana
Ron ArianaSenior Consultant
Ron Ariana brings a new range of talents to The Skills Connection, backed up by 30 years’ hands-on experience in software solutions involving ERP, supply chain, BI, data integration, and analytics. He has worked with fast-growing SaaS firms like ArborMetrix and billion-dollar-plus giants like Informatica and ExactTarget (now Salesforce Marketing Cloud), handling new product launches, M&A, turnarounds, and emerging market development. Ron’s expertise in creating ingenious, targeted, and realistic go-to-market strategies will be especially valuable to ambitious start-ups looking to scale rapidly and develop their international potential.
Peter Sampson
Peter SampsonSales Director
Peter spent a total of 14 years in senior sales roles with Gartner, leading key teams in the UK and Europe, and as Group Vice President developing markets across Asia Pacific. He began his career in financial services with a major bank. His insider knowledge of selling to and for research and advisory firms is second to none and has helped numerous firms to improve their level of engagement with the analyst community.
Mark Crew
Mark CrewSales Director
Mark has spent 19 years in the analyst industry, working as a senior account manager at Gartner, Strategy Partners, TowerGroup and Aite Group. He has also worked at Channel Dynamics where he delivered consulting programs for global IT vendors such as Hewlett Packard, Oracle, Cognos and Microsoft, helping these organisations bring focus and clarity to their go-to-market strategy and messaging.
Eran Gindin
Eran GindinCountry Manager - Israel
Eran is a well known and respected figure in Israel’s IT industry, with nearly 20 years’ experience. As managing director at Sakal online, he created what was then Israel’s biggest e-commerce site, before moving on to Websplit, a high tech start-up, and then to Gartner Israel, where he spent eight years. He has recently worked as a consultant on leading-edge media projects with companies such as CEVA, Ceragon Networks and cybersecurity experts Check Point Software.
Andrea Thomas
Andrea ThomasMarketing and Sales Director
Andrea has over 15 years experience in the IT industry working both at Gartner and a range of technology suppliers. At Gartner, Andrea was a member of the marketing services team, advising companies on how to integrate Gartner research within their marketing collateral to increase the credibility and reach of their campaigns. Most recently Andrea was EMEA B2B Marketing Manager at Kingston Technology, responsible for analyst relations, key alliances, event and campaign management.
Ian Shircore
Ian ShircoreEditorial Director
Ian used to be the top editor at Gartner, managing a team of 80 as VP for Worldwide Editorial and Web Services. He has held positions as marketing and communications director for European software companies in the areas of artificial intelligence and Internet security, and has written nine books on a diverse range of subjects including online shopping, NLP, Douglas Adams and conspiracy theories.
“You provided amazing advice and professional guidance… your input and influence will reach far beyond our Gartner relationship into many aspects of how we do business.”

Head of Corporate Marketing