The Ativio Management Team
Chris Riester
President/CEO
Chris Riester, a seasoned expert in consulting and customer focused solutions, founded Ativio in 2006 in order to better service the business community through offering superior consulting and business solutions services. Chris has worked in international environments for several years through consulting engagements. Chris began working in the offshoring space several years ago and saw the value it brought to the consulting world. From this discovery, he formed a company with the help of his partners around the globe.
Chris’s past 11 years in the consulting and customer focused solutions field has made his experience invaluable to the start up and continuing maintenance of Ativio’s business processes. He has worked as the VP of Product Development for a multi-million dollar Customer Relationship Management SAAS application. His roles included client interfacing, international team leadership, and product architecture. Chris was also one of the original architects that aided in taking a SAAS system form start-up to processing over $40M annually.
Through his past experience as VP of Product Development and his leadership experience with a Fortune 500 company, Chris has gained a broad spectrum of knowledge about the industry, including software development, quality assurance, enterprise infrastructure, and software process improvement. This collective business history has been essential to Ativio’s development as Chris continues to remain hands on in Ativio’s processes and procedures.
Chris is a graduate of Indiana University, Bloomington
Susan Nierste
Vice President, Business Affairs
Susan is a founding partner at Ativio and has been involved since the company’s inception. She is a tenacious, results-oriented project leader and a detail-minded business analyst who documents and leads projects to successful on-time conclusions. She has been instrumental in the building and growth of the business’ infrastructure though instigating interdepartmental communication on an international scale. Susan has a keen sense of cultural understanding due to her international travel and living experience.
Her educational experiences include a grant writer certification, paralegal certification from Roosevelt University, and a Bachelor of Science in Interpersonal Communication from Ohio University.
Katie Belange
Vice President, Corporate and Legal Affairs
Katie Belange, a co-founder, leads the company's international Department of Legal and Corporate affairs, which is responsible for all legal work, including contract administration, risk management, corporate and regulatory strategies, and legal and compliance functions worldwide.
Katie's experience as Corporate Counsel with leading software and outsourcing companies, as well as previous experience working with international offshore firms, gives her valuable knowledge of the global software outsourcing industry.
Katie earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Hanover College, and received her Juris Doctor from Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis.
Amit J Patadia
President India Operations
Amit Patadia brings to Ativio over 11 years of experience as an IT professional working with top consultancy firms in India. Amit has travel extensively throughout the United States working with US based clients running US base projects for extended periods of over 12 months. He successfully completed project engagements by managing development teams made up both of Indian and US based personnel.
As a Project Manager, Amit gained a broad spectrum of knowledge about the industry, including software development, quality assurance, enterprise infrastructure, and software process improvement making him a perfect liaison for cross continental team leadership and project management.
Amit Patadia started working with Ativio President Chris Riester in 2006.
Today Amit is based in Delhi, India and heads up Ativio operations in offices located in Noida, India and Ahemdabad, India. Amit provides focused detail in the design, development, implementation, and maintenance of enterprise solutions to clients.
Nikhil Mistry
President Africa Operations
Nikhil Mistry is an Information Technology professional with strong competencies in the design, development, implementation, and maintenance of enterprise solutions. In addition to his strengths in the IT industry, Mistry has had notable entrepreneurial success in the Southern African manufacturing market.
Nikhil Mistry worked closely with Ativio’s President Chris Riester as one of the original database architects of a SAAS application.
Today, Nikhil is based in Gaborone, Botswana and heads up Ativio’s African operations.
Nikhil is a graduate of Purdue University, Indiana.