Meet Applied Frameworks

Jason Tanner is Chief Executive Officer of Applied Frameworks and co-author of Software Profit Streams®, the methodology that underpins the Horizon platform. He brings more than three decades of leadership experience in enterprise software, spanning product management, technology strategy, and organizational transformation at some of the largest and most complex organizations in the world.

Jason’s conviction is straightforward: every software organization is capable of building profitably and sustainably — and that belief is the foundation of Applied Frameworks and the driver behind Horizon, the platform built to close the gap between technology investment decisions and the outcomes they are supposed to produce.

Before Applied Frameworks, Jason served nine years as a Marine Corps officer, commanding an infantry rifle company and directing operations for more than 1,500 Marines. He studied engineering at Cornell University and earned his MBA at Duke University. He is a Certified Scrum Trainer and Certified Scrum@Scale Trainer, and has coached Agile practitioners across dozens of enterprise organizations worldwide.

Luke has been involved with Applied Frameworks since its founding in 2003. He later went on to start Conteneo, a collaboration software company which was acquired by Scaled Agile in 2019. While at Scaled Agile, Luke served as a SAFe® Framework Contributor and Principal Consultant, with significant contributions to the SAFe Agile Product Management (APM) and Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) competencies and the SAFe POPM, APM, and LPM courses.

He is the author of four books and is cited as an inventor on more than a dozen patents. His books include Software Profit Streams (co written with Jason Tanner) (2023), Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products through Collaborative Play (2006), Beyond Software Architecture (2003) and Journey of the Software Professional (1996).

Luke co-organized the first Agile conference in 2003, has served on the Board of the Agile Alliance, and, in partnership with the Scrum Alliance, produced the “Collaboration at Scale” webinar series, the world’s largest monthly webinar devoted to helping organizations with 10 or more Scrum teams in 2 or more locations scale agility.

Luke is a highly sought after speaker has as keynoted such conferences as the Agile Alliance conference, Agile Australia, Lean-Agile Scotland, Agile New Zealand, the Austrian Innovation Forum, the CXPA and multiple SAFe Summits.

Luke is the co-founder of Every Voice Engaged Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit that helps citizens, governments and nonprofit organizations collaboratively solve problems that are unsolvable without civic engagement.

Luke graduated magna cum laude with a BSE in computer engineering and an MSE in
computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan.

Laura Caldie is SVP of Sales and Marketing at Applied Frameworks, where she leads the
go-to-market strategy and revenue motion for the Horizon platform. She brings more than
20 years of B2B enterprise software sales experience, with a track record of closing and
growing complex deals inside some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated
technology organizations.
Laura spent nine years at Conteneo, the collaboration software company founded by Luke
Hohmann, serving as VP of Sales through its acquisition by Scaled Agile in 2019. That
experience — building a SaaS sales motion, scaling enterprise accounts, and navigating a
successful acquisition — is directly applicable to what Applied Frameworks is building with
Horizon.
Earlier in her career, Laura held enterprise sales and business development roles across
the software industry, establishing a foundation in technology sales that spans distribution,
services, and SaaS. She is a Certified SAFe® Practice Consultant and holds a degree in
Political Science from the University of Wisconsin.

Kevin McCabe is a pioneering figure in the field of pricing consultancy, renowned for their innovative approach and unwavering commitment to driving profitability. With a rich background in fintech, manufacturing and services and extensive experience across diverse industry verticals. Kevin is a Sloan Fellow (London Business School) and has an MSc from The University of London (also his Dad’s alma mater).

Growing up in Canada, Kevin has traveled the world and is settled in Boston with his wife, MaryAnn, and 2 college aged kids. Plus the dog that led him to Luke.

Simon Chesney has a distinguished career in product and systems development, as a software engineering leader and cultural change agent, often working to facilitate effective collaboration in the cross-functional space. In order to enable greater business agility at the product portfolio level Simon has developed and introduced economic models to enable product and portfolio trade-off & delay-cost analysis and decision-support.

Background & Credentials
Prior to moving to Silicon Valley in the late 1990’s, Simon spent a decade as Managing Director of a boutique UK-based software & project management consulting firm. During the 2000’s he led File System Development at NetApp, also facilitating the company’s Whole Product Transformation and inventing the patented “Whole Product Gap Analysis” toolset & process to maintain portfolio coherence. At Zynga Simon led System Engineering in the development of infrastructure to support 240M monthly active users playing the world’s largest on-line games. At Western Digital Corporation Simon introduced and led the Agile transformation, becoming certified as the company’s internal SPCT. Simon maintains professional & coaching certifications in SAFe, Agile, PMP & Transactional Competence and has presented his insights into culture change, portfolio management and delay-cost analysis at international conferences.

Simon is currently an SPCT-candidate, having been until recently one of the world's few Internal Scaled Agile Program Consultant Trainers - an SPCT certification tied to a specific enterprise. Additionally Simon is certified as a SAFe6 SPC & RTE, Certified Scrum Professional & Scrum Master, AMP-CCA (Certified Agile Change Agent), PMP and IUC (Influential U Consultant in Transactional Competence).