The chief technology officer and executive vice president of a Bozeman-based tech firm will step in as the new chair of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance and its board of directors.

Jeff Trom, co-founder of Workiva, will join Tom Stergios of Advanced Technology Group in Missoula, and Kelly Schwager of Oracle, as new board members.

“The alliance has been a vital resource for growing and established tech and manufacturing companies for the last four years and will continue to be that resource as tech in Montana grows at unprecedented rates,” Trom said in a statement issued with this week's announcement.

Trom also founded Engineering Animation, Inc., where he served as vice president. He stepped in as the company's chief technology officer in charge of software architecture, development and deployment starting in 1999.

Engineering Animation was acquired by Unigraphics Solutions in 2000.

Stergios, who serves as the senior vice president of strategy and corporate development for ATG in Missoula, will also join the board. A Missoula native, he has successfully grown ATG from a handful of basement employees in 2011 to its current staff of 135.

He's also a founding member of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance.

“This organization has been the tip of the spear for Montana’s acceleration as a hotbed for technology,” Stergios said. “We have the opportunity – perhaps the obligation – to fundamentally alter the economics of our state, providing high-paying jobs in communities large and small across Montana.”

Kelly Schwager of Columbia Falls is also new to the alliance's board of directors. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, she currently serves as vice president of global communications for Oracle, which ranks itself among the alliance's founding members.

She joins existing board members Jason Mittelstaedt of Bozeman, Paige Williams of Missoula, and Liz Marchi from Polson.

“Today, 50 percent of the alliance’s six board of directors members are female,” said Christina Henderson, the alliance's executive director. “Two are in Bozeman, two in Missoula, and two in the Flathead Valley, representing the Alliance’s three largest hubs of membership.

“This current board is uniquely positioned to both carry forward the original mission of the founders, and to help support our members in high-tech and manufacturing as they grow to the next level.”

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