CEO Coaches

Mike Seashols

Advisor and Board Member
CEO & Executive Chair at Secuvy, Board & Executive Coach; CEO and Executive Chairman of Sukhi; Former CEO at Golden Gate Software & Documentum, Co-founder at Versant, 1st VP Sales & Marketing Oracle then Ingres, both thru IPO

My interest lies in sharing my wide array of entrepreneurial and operational experiences to interesting organizations in their strategy and execution to reach a more successful outcome.  I am passionate about both strategy and execution - assisting in both areas to achieve the desired optimum results.  I can inspire and encourage individuals from board members to the leadership team – across all the functional departments of the organization.  I help in areas like overall market assessment, strategic planning, product / services offerings, Go to Market alternatives, staffing structure, focus priorities, pricing analysis, accountability metrics, digital communications, personnel recruitment / development / retention, and the evaluation & execution of liquidity options.

My life’s journey includes – growing up in Indiana, being recruited by IBM as a college freshman to be a computer programmer, graduating with a math degree from Manchester University, marrying my college sweetheart, having IBM move us to Silicon Valley.

After 10 years at IBM, I shifted my focus to becoming a software entrepreneur through an introduction by Don Valentine from Sequoia Ventures to Larry Ellison at ORACLE who recruited me as Oracle’s initial Sales & Marketing Vice President in 1981 (less than $10M in revenue) – I remained in that position thru their successful IPO in 1986. I was then recruited by one of Oracle’s competitors – Ingres – to join them in a similar capacity where I stayed through their IPO in 1988.  I then co-founded Versant (object-oriented database) which was funded by TA Associates and Bessemer Partners – resulting in a successful IPO after 5 years of operations.  In the mid 1990’s, I was recruited by Xerox Ventures to be the Chairman and interim CEO of Documentum where I led the development of their initial target market (pharmaceuticals) while recruiting their first CEO and key management team members resulting in a successful IPO four years later. 

In 1998, I served as the Executive Chairman of a public company - Enlightnen Software (network monitoring for security and performance) for 3 years.  I then joined Evolve Software (SAAS vendor for managing the consulting services function for large organizations) as Chairman & CEO and recruited the senior management team resulting in a successful IPO.  I became the parttime Chairman of NetBase – one of the earliest social media monitoring and analysis products for 8 years. I was recruited to join GoldenGate Software (database replication) full time as the Chairman & CEO which was sold to Oracle for >$300 million. I served on the board of G5 (property management marketing software) as Chairman for 6 years which was sold to RealPage 2020.

One of my most rewarding roles was when my wife, Suzanne, and I co-founded a non-profit 501C3 with a Congolese couple, Mossai and Sabuli Sanguma called CongoVoice. Our focus was vulnerable children, water access, medical services, education, leadership training, and economic development.  people. We successfully raised millions of dollars that was deployed through accountability-based programs resulting in a dramatic improvement in the quality of thousands of Congolese lives.  CongoVoice was recognized by the Congolese government as a model for geographic expansion across the country.  During 2022, we transitioned CongoVoice to be totally managed and staffed by Congolese with a self-sustaining economic model.  We were blessed and proud that we were a strategic part of this positive and lasting transformation in the lives of Congolese people.

I also co-founded with my son, Matt, an early medical cannabis brand, dosist, which now operates in 5 states across the country.  

 I have assisted numerous organizations and individuals over the past 4 decades with strategy, staffing and execution.  I have extensive experience with products & markets in data management / replication, network monitoring / security, content management, application software, social media monitoring / engagement, IoT hardware / software, recruiting / staffing, supply chain / retail, education services, non-profits, and property/ real estate management.