Roy Leban

About Roy Leban

Technology leader with 30 years’ experience building products from concept through…

Experience

1. Chief Technology Officer

   Puzzazz, Inc

   Sep 2008 — Present

   Founder and Board Chair. Created the first interactive puzzle ebooks and the first ebookstore for puzzles. • As CTO, created product design and software architecture, established software development process. Hired engineering team; managed team using agile methodologies; planned, designed, and led implementation of entire product line. • Designed and implemented major parts of: the Puzzazz puzzle engine which supports hundreds of types of puzzles; TouchWrite with Auto Pencil, Puzzazz’s handwriting recognition system based on machine learning techniques (GeekWire 2013 Innovation of the Year); and content pipeline, publishing tools, and cloud service. Designed and published the ipuz standard for puzzle publishing. • Launched 6 major versions of the Puzzazz app for iOS with more than 100 puzzle books of all types including crosswords (traditional, cryptic, variety), Sudoku, KenKen, acrostics, cryptograms, logic puzzles, drop quotes, and many unusual and unique puzzles previously solvable only on paper. • As CEO, defined mission and vision, created the business model, raised capital, hired a team, did biz dev with independent authors and partners, managed the business of the company. Achieved industry-leading metrics in revenue per active user, long-term customer value, usage per day, customer satisfaction, customer conversion, and retention.

Education

• The University of Kansas

  BS, Computer Science

  1977 — 1984

• Founder Institute

  Entrepreneurship

  2009 — 2010

• University of Michigan

  Computer Science / Cognitive Science

  1984 — 1986

Skills

• Ios Development
• Engineering
• Puzzles
• C#
• Strategy
• Mobile Applications
• Ios Design
• Software Engineering
• Javascript
• Team Building
• User Interface
• Sql
• Software Architecture
• Management
• Product Architecture
• Entrepreneurship
• Crossword Puzzles
• SEO
• Web 2.0
• User Interface Design
• Software Development Life Cycle (Sdlc)
• User Experience
• Game Design
• Software Development Methodologies
• Cloud Computing
• Saas
• Web Development
• Product Management
• Start-Ups
• Distributed Systems
• Python
• User Experience Design
• Java
• Program Management
• Leadership
• Agile Methodologies
• Software as a Service (Saas)
• Mentoring
• Interaction Design
• Software Project Management