Mark Sherman, Executive Director

Mark joined PTP as Executive Director in 2002. He has more than twenty-five years experience in Information Technology. He has worked as a programmer/analyst, IT strategic planner, consultant and manager. Prior to his work in the technology field, he earned a degree in Urban Studies from Macalester College in St. Paul. He has held a jobs as a caddy, janitor, childcare worker and fabrication shop welder. He's organized a group that established a neighborhood-owned grocery, worked on teams that planned a community-based credit union and a housing project, formed several neighborhood groups and created a moving operation for people with low incomes.

He's founded two information technology businesses and currently serves on the board of a third. He received an "innovative technology" medal from the state of Minnesota for a software product to manage information and referral (I & R) databases. For the U.S. Department of Defense in Germany, he developed software systems that distributed publications to the "Stars and Stripes" bookstores. He has provided pro-bono services and/or computer donations to Banco Nicaraguense in Managua, the African National Congress in exile in Lusaka, Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action (MAPA), Advocating Change Together (ACT) and the Nonviolent Peaceforce in Saint Paul, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) and Resource Center of the Americas in Minneapolis and Cloudforest Initiatives in San Cristobal de las Casas. He has acted as business advisor, developer or founder to a number of entrepreneurial social enterprises ranging from a furniture import operation to an on-line bookstore that specializes in progressive Latin American issues.

In 1984 he and a partner formed a software-consulting firm that provided information technology services to local Fortune 50 businesses as well as a number of smaller enterprises. Mark managed the business as it grew from one employee to seventy-five staff members at the time that they sold it to a growing multinational firm in 1997. He became a Vice President of Sales and Operations of the purchasing company and continued to run his former company as a branch of the multinational company for a short transitional period. His work in the firm gave him an opportunity to develop a respectful entrepreneurial workplace where workplace diversity met with respect and appreciation. He also gained extensive experience managing sustainable organizational growth over several business cycles.

Following his exit from his consulting business, he provided a wide range of information technology services to Twin Cities non-profits and unions on a freelance and pro-bono basis until he joined Progressive Technology Project in November of 2002. He has primary responsibility for program development, fundraising, strategic planning, staff management and communications.

His interests include travel, biking, history, politics, unions, gardening and, above all, the women in his family. Along with English, he speaks German and is continually trying to improve his Spanish.