Leadership Team

Instant Intelligence’s leadership is deliberately structured to align authority, strategic intent, and execution, reflecting a shared approach to leadership rather than a collection of independent roles. Many executives worked directly alongside CEO Jim Chirico at Avaya, where they jointly navigated a $3B enterprise. Managing complex stakeholder relationships, driving operational integration, and delivering measurable outcomes under pressure, the team built alignment, trust, and decision-making effectiveness.

  • Jim Chirico

    President and CEO

    Jim has 40+ years of executive leadership experience, including serving as President and CEO of Avaya, where he led a $3B global enterprise. He operates at global scale, having managed teams of over 40,000 employees. His successes spans senior positions in Fortune 500 companies such as IBM and Seagate.

  • Kathleen Phillips

    Chief Financial Officer

    Kathleen brings 25+ years of operational finance expertise spanning budgeting, margin analysis, audit readiness, and multi-state regulatory compliance. Her unique dual background as a financial executive and licensed Attorney-at-Law gives Instant an unmatched layer of governance discipline.

  • Verlin Gradney

    Chief Customer Officer

    Verlin brings 25+ years of experience leading customer growth, go-to-market execution, and market positioning. He works closely with leadership teams to shape customer engagement and drive adoption. His expertise spans translating complex offerings into clear customer value and scaling customer-led growth.

  • Art Porth

    Chief Technical Officer

    Art’s 30+ years across ATS, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Chase, and First Data culminated in architecting Instant’s Point of Inception Visibility technology. His real-time signal capture engine is the foundation that delivers Instant’s live, per-second intelligence to global enterprises.

  • David McMackin

    Chief Operating Officer

    David co-founded and sold three fintech companies, including USA Processing, the nation’s largest debit processing center. A two-term Electronic Transactions Association board member, his record of scaling payment enterprises to acquisition drives Instant’s operational excellence.

  • Simon Harrison

    Chief Product & Marketing Officer

    Simon earned CMO of the Year at GITEX 2021 leading Avaya’s global marketing across 190 countries, achieving its first year-over-year growth in a decade. A former Gartner Magic Quadrant author, his product and go-to-market leadership directly shapes INSTANT’s market positioning and enterprise adoption.

  • Jim Davies

    Chief Experience Officer

    Jim spent 20+ years as VP of Research at Gartner defining the global CX market, authoring Magic Quadrant reports that shaped enterprise buying decisions worldwide. At INSTANT, he ensures every client touchpoint drives platform adoption, value realization, and long-term enterprise loyalty.

  • Michael McMackin

    Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer

    Michael co-founded Instant and spent 35+ years building and exiting payment companies processing billions annually. As the original architect of Point of Inception Visibility, his founder conviction and capital strategy are the foundational engine powering Instant’s growth and expansion.

  • Gary Wipfler

    Senior Advisor

    Gary served as Apple’s Corporate Treasurer for 24 years, overseeing nearly $200 billion and helping build the world’s most valuable company. His unmatched treasury expertise gives INSTANT the financial credibility that commands attention from enterprise CFOs and institutional investors.

A leadership team deliberately structured to drive the Decision Intelligence industry forward.