About Us

Pradeep is the Founder and Chief Content Architect for Ictect, Inc. His specialization is in Intelligent Content, Semantic Technologies, High-quality XML, and Content Architectures for large-scale applications. He has extensive experience in implementing Electronic Publishing processes for the Department of Defense (AFI 33-360, MILSPEC, AR 25-30, and DA PAM 25-40), Book Publishers (ePUB and DocBook), Technical Documentation (DITA), Journal Publishers (JATS), and Educational Publishers (QTI).

Pradeep has assisted several organizations with their complex document processes, including:

• Air Force Departmental Publishing Office
• Army Publishing Directorate
• Defense Contract Audit Agency
• Nelnet Peterson's
• The City University of New York
• The World Bank
• Joint Commission
• Cushman and Wakefield

Megan McKinney brings 20+ years business development expertise within the aerospace and defense industries to Ictect. As the Director of Strategic Development, she is an integral team member focused on building customer relationships and delivering our patented software solution to modernize document workflows, increase the speed and efficiency of the publishing process, and reduce training needs all while providing significant cost savings. Ms. McKinney is an active member of defense industry associations and is currently serving on the National Defense Industrial Association's (NDIA) Member Leadership Council (Chair 2021) and the NDIA Great Lakes Chapter Board (Co-founder 2009, President 2015-2020). Ms. McKinney is also a member of the Association of the United States Army's (AUSA) and the Army Aviation Association of America.

Mark Ertl has a business education degree and an MA in education with 20+ years as a business educator. He manages Ictect’s Air Force Departmental Publishing Office (AFDPO) and Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) projects. In addition to managing projects for AFDPO and DCAA, he writes user guide content, develops and delivers training, and provides ongoing support. Mark enjoys the process of understanding issues and seeing solutions incorporated to provide the customer with an effective tool to do their job well.

Lisa Rupe is a Content Architect and Project Manager for Ictect. She began her publishing career with SGML at Mosby in 1995. At Questia Media, she managed the XML department and contributed to a pioneering open eBook working group. Lisa joined Ictect as a content architect in 2011. Her years of working directly with markup languages, attention to detail, and strong interpersonal communication skills greatly benefit both our clients and our engineering department. Lisa works mainly on federal projects but has also worked in publishing and education sectors with Ictect.

Dean Peterson has almost 20 years of experience developing and administrating enterprise computer systems. Before his current role as a C# and JavaScript developer, he created the Linux layer underpinning Minnesota’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation. He is proficient in object-oriented programming languages such as C#, Java, and Python; web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; Windows and Linux OS administration and architecture; as well as Oracle SQL, MySQL, and TCP/IP networking. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Concordia University, Saint Paul, MN.

Israel Condon has been designing for print and digital media —including responsive website design and email design— since 2014. He has collaborated with Ictect for almost as long, and has been involved with such projects as re-designing the website, developing new pages, and creating assets for various marketing campaigns. Israel is a bit of an all-rounder, doing design work, video and audio capture and editing, designing booths for expos, and any other miscellaneous projects that arise.

Jim Neighbors advises the Ictect team on strategies and tactics for intelligent content applications in the Department of Defense. Jim has 33 years of experience in federal services, including as Executive Director of the DoD / VA Collaboration Office, Principal Deputy Director, Requirements and Strategic Integration Office, OUSD/P&R, and Headquarters Air Force Chief Information Officer (HAF/CIO) for SAF/AA. Under his leadership at SAF/AA, the Air Force saw a significant productivity improvement and cost reduction with Ictect software.

Dianne Kennedy has had a long career on the leading edge of technology innovations for the publishing industry. She is the recipient of the 2016 Publishing Innovator Luminaire industry award. Her focus is the development of standards-based, XML-enabled, cross-media publishing solutions. Ms. Kennedy participated in the development of ISO 8879, SGML and in the 1990s served as chairperson for the Society of Automotive Engineer’s J2008 SGML Publishing Specification. She actively participated in the Department of Defense and Air Transport Association publishing specifications and served as editor for ISO 12083, Electronic Manuscript Preparation and Markup. From 2003-2016, Kennedy served as Vice President of Digital Publishing Technologies for the Idealliance Association. During her tenure at Idealliance, she guided the development of 30+ XML-based publishing technology specifications. Currently Kennedy serves as editor of the Idealliance PRISM specifications for magazine publishing and is editor of ISO 20616, Print Quality eXchange. She currently serves as a Senior Technical Strategist for Ictect and is a certified Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience Facilitator.

Joe Gollner is an independent advisor to Ictect, providing objective insight and guidance on industry trends, technology changes, solution architectures, and business operations. As an independent advisor, Joe brings over 25 years of experience as a successful manager of businesses, software products, strategic partnerships, research & development efforts, intellectual property portfolios, and solution projects — all within the content industry. He also brings a history of designing and deploying award-winning content solutions for customers around the world that include silicon-valley start-ups, governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and global enterprises.

Bill is an experienced technical consultant, past president of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) and a well-regarded speaker and educator. He is Principal of Kasdorf & Associates, LLC, a publishing consultancy focusing on accessibility, XML/HTML/EPUB modeling, information infrastructure, and workflow. In his consulting practice, Bill has served clients globally, including large international publishers such as Pearson, Cengage, Wolters Kluwer, Kaplan, and Sage; scholarly presses and societies such as Harvard, MIT, Toronto, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge, and IEEE; aggregators such as VitalSource; and global publishing and library organizations such as the World Bank, the British Library, the Asian Development Bank, OCLC, and the European Union.