Donna Payne
CEO and Founder Payne Group
Donna Payne is CEO and founder of PayneGroup (formerly Payne Consulting Group), a development and training company headquartered in Seattle, WA. She and the company have authored 12 books on Microsoft Office including the bestselling series: Word for Law Firms and Excel for Law Firms. Payne is an original member of Microsoft Legal Advisory Council, the American Bar Association, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Project Management Institute. Donna Payne is a frequent speaker at legal and technical conferences worldwide and has spoken to Congressional committees, the Senate, and at international judicial conferences on the subject of metadata and preventing accidental disclosure. She is a columnist for several legal and technical publications; she has been featured in syndicated articles on women in technology.
In March 2004 at the annual tech show for the American Bar Association, Payne received the first ever Lex Proficio award for lifetime service advancement of legal software and publishing. In February 2009, Donna Payne received the first ever IT Consultant of the Year award from Law Technology News.Twitter: @Donna_Payne.
Robert Affleck
Vice President of PayneGroup and President of Development Division
Robert Affleck is Vice President of PayneGroup and President of Development. He was the initial developer of Metadata Assistant and works with the company's development team to create useful and innovative products and solutions. Robert is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and Microsoft Certified Trainer. He holds a Master's degree in Operations Research and has been a featured speaker at conferences and events worldwide. He was a contributing author to Excel Expert Solutions (Que), and a technical editor on Essential Excel 97 (Prima). Prior to joining Payne, Robert worked for Booz Allen and Hamilton, was a Cost Analyst for NASA and an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Tara Byers
Vice President of Development
Tara Byers is vice president of development for PayneGroup. Tara holds many product certifications and has extensive legal experience in training, development and project management. Prior to becoming vice president of development, she was in charge of training and migration services.
Karen Walker
Senior Software Developer
Karen Walker is a senior developer with PayneGroup. She concentrates on Forms and Numbering Assistant development as well as new development projects. Karen has extensive experience working within a law firm environment. Prior to joining Payne, she worked at the Seattle law firm, Foster Pepper.
Shirley Gorman
Vice President of Client Relations
Shirley Gorman is Vice President of Client Relations for PayneGroup. She has over 20 years' experience working in law firms, starting with Word Processing Manager and later as Training & Development Manager for Davis Wright Tremaine, a large international law firm. While working at the firm, Shirley was a member of the Microsoft Legal Advisory Council, She has extensive migration experience working with law firms migrating to new software. She is a speaker at technical conferences and was asked to address the Microsoft developers regarding the specific needs of the legal industry.
Susan Horiuchi
Vice President of Training
Susan Horiuchi is vice president of training with PayneGroup. In addition to leading her team of international trainers and project leads, Susan travels to client sites around the world providing high-end technical training, project management and consulting services. Susan is a contributing author of the Word for Law Firms and Excel for Law Firms book series published by Payne, is a contributing author to legal and technical publications, and is a speaker at legal and technical conferences. Prior to her tenure at Payne, Susan has over 10 years� law firm experience as a legal assistant.
Leah Matthews
Senior Software Developer/Migration Specialist
Leah Matthews is a senior developer with PayneGroup. She concentrates on Pleading and Forms Assistants as well as new development projects. Leah also provides migration consulting and onsite development which allows her to pass along her considerable knowledge to internal developers. She has an extensive legal background and has worked at firms such as Lyon & Lyon.
Janet Del Aguila
Lead Integration Specialist/Metadata Assistant
Janet Del Aguila is the lead integration and support engineer for PayneGroup's Metadata Assistant. In this capacity, she tests for compliance and integration with document management systems and other third-party solutions. Janet creates customized builds for clients and offers them unparalleled support.
Michelle Guyot
Senior Applications Support Analyst/Forms & Numbering Assistants
Michelle Guyot is the senior applications support analyst for PayneGroup's Forms, Numbering and Outlook Send Assistants. In this capacity, she tests for compliance and integration with document management systems and other third-party solutions. Michelle works with clients to create products that meet the needs of the individual firm. She offers exceptional support and knowledge.
Dawn Thompson
Quality Assurance Analyst/Forms & Numbering Assistants
Dawn Thompson provides quality control in the testing and delivery phases of the Forms and Numbering Assistants. Dawn’s attention to detail and high standards were first demonstrated in her role as the Office Manager for Payne Group's Seattle office. She continues to exhibit the excellent customer service shown when she was the first point of support for our clients.
Michael Whalen
Senior Software Developer
Michael Whalen is a senior developer with PayneGroup, who is currently working on the next generation of the Payne Group's Assistant line of software. Michael has extensive experience developing software solutions that work with Office and other applications. Prior to joining Payne, he worked at Microsoft, helping develop Visual Studio Tools for Office.
Sue Hughes
Metadata Assistant Specialist/Senior Office and Applications Trainer
Sue Hughes is the lead Integration specialist for Metadata Assistant for PayneGroup. In this capacity, she serves as subject matter expert on all things metadata and Microsoft Office. She successfully completed the Kroll Ontrack E-Discovery Certification course and is a member in good standing with EDEN Electronic Data Extraction Network. Sue also holds the following credentials: Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), Microsoft Certified Application Specialist Instructor (MCASI), and Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) for Office 2007. Prior to joining PayneGroup, Sue worked for 19 years providing software training and support to a cross section of professionals. Thirteen of these years were spent at the law offices of Foster Pepper in Seattle.
Teresa Morris
Senior Developer/Migration Specialist
Teresa Morris comes to PayneGroup with over 25 years of experience in the legal industry, including positions at both law firms and legal software vendors. Most recently she was Applications Manager at a large international law firm, responsible for managing the team tasked with selection, customization, packaging and third level support of all applications running on the Firm's 3,800+ desktops. Previously, Teresa spent several years working for Microsystems as Vice President of Migration Systems. In her role at Microsystems she was responsible for guiding clients through the difficult task of converting their document stores from WordPerfect to Word and advising clients on best practices in the legal document production environment. Teresa has extensive experience with Word and WordPerfect, several years managing large, multi-faceted projects, and significant programming experience.
Anna Sexauer
Metadata Assistant Support/Quality Assurance Analyst
Anna Sexauer works on the Metadata Assistant team providing technical support to clients, as well as leading all quality assurance testing of product releases. She also works closely with the Vice President of Client Relations as first point of contact for new Metadata Assistant clients, ensuring a seamless process from time of purchase to product roll out. Prior to joining Payne Group in the fall of 2008, Anna worked as a senior level broker at a transportation firm in Durango, Colorado. She is Microsoft Certified in both Word and Outlook 2007.
Jennifer Prytz
Customer Relations Specialist/Certified Electronic Discovery Management Specialist
Jennifer Prytz is a customer support specialist and serves as assistant to the CEO, Donna Payne. Jennifer is lead on the video training program at Payne and works with clients directly to ensure that the product is successful and is a good fit for the organization. Jennifer recently earned her certification in Electronic Discovery Management from the UW Washington, and is a member in good standing with EDEN Electronic Data Extraction Network. Jennifer has a long history of experience in the customer relations industry including prior experience working for Disney.
Terry Morgan
Senior Developer
Terry Morgan is a senior developer with the Payne Group. He has extensive experience in software engineering with companies such as Microsoft and RealNetworks. He has also been a research engineer/scientist for the Boeing PhantomWorks working on the command and control systems for the UCAV and ISS and at Kodak Digital Sciences working on machine vision and image recognition systems.