Tech Entreprenuer
Clif began his tech career at Microsoft, where he grew from Software Engineer to General Manager over nine years. Clif left Microsoft in 1994 to start his own company, Mindsai Productions, with the mission “to create rich worlds for interactive learning.” Mindsai designed and developed commercial CD-ROM products for Scholastic, Inc., Disney and others, and won numerous awards, including two BESSIE (Best Educational Software) awards.
Other career highlights include Executive Director | Technology Infusion in Small Schools; Chief Technology Officer | Knowledge Mosaic; and Clif’s collaboration with grammy-nominated vibraphonist, Stefon Harris, to create the revolutionary Harmony Cloud™ app, currently being used by music students and teachers around the world. Most recently, Clif was a strategic consultant for the UW AIMS Center, helping them conceptualize, develop and market a next generation software system to facilitate collaborative mental health care in hundreds of clinics across the U.S.
Strategic Consultant | 2017-2020
UW AIMS Center, Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions
Clif guided the UW AIMS team to conceptualize, develop, and market a next generation software system to facilitate collaborative care for depression, anxiety, and other common mental health issues. This innovative, integrated approach has dramatically improved behavioral health outcomes in hundreds of clinics across the U.S. with over 100,000 patients served to date.
Clif worked closely with key AIMS team members to envision and execute a multi-year product roadmap and negotiate a partnership with Redox Systems. The result is AIMS is now offering an EHR (Electronic Healthcare Record) integrated registry that is being used in a growing number of clinics across the country. This system streamlines and supports clinics in implementing the AIMS collaborative care model, saving staff time, facilitating collaboration between patients, primary care physicians, remote consulting psychiatrists, and clinical staff, and ultimately helping patients to live healthier, more productive lives.
CEO / Managing Partner | 2012-2019
Melodic Progression Institute
Clif co-founded the Melodic Progression Institute with vibraphonist and educator Stefon Harris (four-time GRAMMY™ nominee and eight-time Best Mallet Player by the Jazz Journal Association). Together, they developed and published the Harmony Cloud™ app, a new and innovative approach to hearing and learning harmony. Harmony Cloud is commonly among the top 100 music apps on the App Store and has consistently received rave reviews and a 5 star rating.
As a life-long jazz musician, Clif has been fascinated with the emotional depth and beauty of musical harmony. In 2012, Clif met Stefon Harris at The Centrum Jazz Workshop where they began discussing the challenge of helping musicians develop an intuitive understanding of chords and chord progressions. After five years of research and development in innovative approaches to hearing and learning harmony, they received a patent in automated harmony generation and published the Harmony Cloud app. Harmony Cloud is being used by thousands of musicians from around the world, including students and professors at top conservatories such as Berklee, Juilliard, SF Conservatory, and Manhattan School of Music.
Chief Technology Officer | 2009–2012
Knowledge Mosaic, Inc.
As Chief Technology Officer, Clif led all engineering and operations within Knowledge Mosaic. During his tenure, the company thrived, with significant improvements to its team, culture, core technologies, and product offerings. Revenue grew fourfold, eventually leading to an acquisition by Lexis Nexis corporation.
Knowledge Mosaic’s mission was to enable searching and analyzing the vast information flow generated by the US Federal Government. This included laws, bills, rules, corporate disclosure, enforcement actions, lobbying disclosure, environmental disclosure, legal opinions, and much more, harvested in real-time from thousands of different sources. Knowledge Mosaic’s customers included federal and local government agencies, law firms, universities, and corporations.
Vice President Product Development | 2006-2008
Clarity Health Services
Information sharing between healthcare providers is notoriously bad. MedOrder hired Clif to envision and develop a new product and company to help independent physicians successfully manage their patients’ healthcare referrals. Clif consulted with many independent physicians in the Puget Sound region to understand the challenges, and then built and managed a product development team to design, release, and iteratively improve a new referral management system called ClarityHealth. Based on the demonstrated success and popularity of ClarityHealth, the company was eventually acquired by SCI Solutions.
With ClarityHealth, independent physicians enjoy greatly improved communication between providers, accurate transfer of relevant medical records, and streamlined insurance authorization and payment. The ClarityHealth referral system has been used to manage millions of referrals to date.
Director of Program Management | 2008-2009
Dreambox Learning
Clif led the design and release of the first version of DreamBox’s adaptive learning platform for K-2 math. He helped product development break free from a history of repeated delays to achieve a successful launch, and reorganized the product development team around a more agile development style and more user-focused design. DreamBox has since been purchased by Reed Hastings (CEO Netflix) and is steadily gaining traction in both public and private schools.
Consulting Architect | 2005-2006
Synapse Product Development
Clif worked with a team of industrial designers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and software engineers to create a reusable application framework for embedded software running on linux/ARM9 architecture. The framework included mobile network connectivity, user interface, fast boot, and other features. He also worked with clients, such as Comsonics and Boeing, to develop product concepts and implement prototypes, including the Comsonics Companion.
Executive Director, Chief Architect | 2003-2005
Technology Infusion in Small Schools (TISS)
Funded by a generous grant from the Paul Allen Family Foundation, Clif worked with teachers, parents, students and the Seattle Public School administration to design and develop a software system for improving school communications and tracking student progress. A successful pilot at Cleveland High School led to the creation of the “Source,” the district-wide system for tracking academic performance still in use today. Clif hired and led a core team of software developers, master teachers and trainers.
CEO & Founder | 1994-2003
Mindsai Productions, Inc.
Clif founded Mindsai Productions with the mission “to create rich worlds for interactive learning.” Mindsai designed and developed over 10 commercial CD-ROM products for various clients including Scholastic, Inc., Disney, Discovery Communications, and Princeton University. These educational CD-ROMs were designed for ages ranging from pre-K to high school, and won numerous awards including two BESSIE (Best Educational Software) awards. Mindsai reached profitability in 1996 and grew to $3M revenue.
General Manager, Group Program Manager, Government Marketing Manager, Software Development Manager, Software Engineer | 1985-1994
Microsoft Corporation
Clif worked in various roles at Microsoft, including Software Engineer and Software Development Manager in the applications division (Word, Mac File, and PC Works), Government Marketing Manager for all Microsoft productivity software (resulting in the award of the $100M Desktop III to Microsoft), Group Program Manager for Visual C++ 1.0 (Microsoft’s flagship software development environment), and General Manager of the Mercury Product Unit, which developed CD-ROM products and core technologies (Encarta, Bookshelf). During this time Microsoft grew from 900 employees to over 25,000 with revenues growing from less that $100M to over $4B.
Patents
15/217,707 Automatic Harmony Generation System, Awarded 2017
A music composition and training system
D/331,294 (D/331,295 D/331,291) User interface for a computer display, Awarded 2009
User interface techniques for adaptive math instruction
Education
Princeton University, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with minors in Music and Religion.
Graduated cum laude 1985.
In 1979, Clif was awarded a Grumman Scholarship, which provided financial support to attend Princeton University. As a Grumman Scholar, Clif worked summers at the Bethpage Factory where Grumman manufactured F14 Tomcats and other military aircraft.