Mickey Mantle, Founder and CEO at Wanderful Interactive Storybooks | Ron Lichty, Consultant: Interim VP Engineering, Author, Ron Lichty Consulting, Inc.

Mickey Mantle

Mickey sets strategic vision and oversees day-to-day operations for Wanderful. Mickey had the foresight to license the exclusive rights to the beloved Living Books series of interactive storybooks, and revive these titles and others as enhanced mobile apps, as well as for the latest and popular versions of Mac and Windows computers. Mickey has a track record of more than 40 years of success in the software industry. A graduate of the University of Utah with a degree in Computer Science (contemporary with computer industry notables such as the founders of Word Perfect, Silicon Graphics, Netscape, Adobe Systems, and Pixar), his career includes working at computer graphics pioneer Evans & Sutherland (E&S), and then joining Pixar shortly after it was bought by Steve Jobs in 1986.

At Pixar, Mickey managed the development of all of the software for their external products, including the Pixar Image Computer and RenderMan. RenderMan is the gold standard of 3D photorealistic rendering software and has been used on almost every Visual Effects Academy Award Winner for the past two decades. In 1991, Mickey joined BrøderbundSoftware as Vice President of Engineering/Chief Technical Officer where he managed the vast development organization that produced numerous award-winning PC and Mac games such as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Kid Pix, Myst and Living Books. Leaving Brøderbundin late 1997, he then joined Gracenote where, as Senior Vice President of Development, he managed all development, operations and professional services associated with the pioneering web-based CDDB/Gracenote music informat

Ron Lichty

Ron Lichty has been untangling knots in software development and transforming chaos to clarity in product and technology organizations since Apple recruited him from a boutique programming consultancy in 1988. After Apple nurtured his managerial growth in both technology development and product management roles, at companies like Fujitsu, Schwab, Razorfish, Stanford, and dozens of startups of all sizes, Ron grew to VP Engineering, VP Product and CTO roles.

As Ron Lichty Consulting, the past 10 years, he takes on fractional Interim VP Engineering roles, trains teams and executives to make their process more effectively agile, coaches leaders in managing software people and teams to make their software development “hum”, and assesses technology organizations to make their product development more effective and their customers more delighted. In his continued search for effective best practices, Ron also co-authors the periodic Study of Product Team Performance.