Management Team

Jay Coughlan

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Coughlan is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Xata Corporation, a leading provider of fleet operations software and services for the trucking industry. Xata is recognized as the expert in optimizing fleet operations by reducing costs, ensuring regulatory compliance and enhancing customer satisfaction. The company continues to gain momentum by increasing its market share and developing new functionality in response to market demands.

Mr. Coughlan, a highly accomplished executive, provides strong leadership with corporate strategic planning. As a precursor to implementing his strategic plans for XATA, he brought in a new executive team to help manage these crucial changes. Building on that foundation, he implemented a corporate-wide market strategy that changed XATA’s focus from being a single-product company to one offering an enterprise-wide solution that provides professional services and third-party product integration. As an expert in business development, he oversaw the acquisition of GeoLogic Solutions, which provided Xata with entry into a new market with more than 1.5 million trucks.

Mr. Coughlan’s expertise includes the ability to link an insightful assessment of the external business landscape—and then executing the strategy to deliver the desired results. For example, Mr. Coughlan spearheaded a new corporate-wide quality improvement initiative, for both XATA’s customer service and its products. And as a marketing expert, he rebranded the entire organization and moved the headquarters to accommodate the company’s growth.

Under Mr. Coughlan’s leadership, XATA’s acquisition and successful integration of GeoLogic Solutions has resulted in revenue growth of 75 percent and significantly improved operating efficiency. Added to these accomplishments was turning the company’s bottom line from EBITA negative to EBITA positive in just five quarters.

Prior to joining Xata in October 2006, Mr. Coughlan began his career in 1987 at Lawson Software—Minnesota’s largest software company—as an Account Executive, swiftly moving to Vice President of the Health Care Business Unit (Lawson’s first vertical market), where he drove market share and oversaw triple-digit increases in license-based revenue and new accounts.

Mr. Coughlan became Lawson’s CEO in February 2001. Under his direction, the company completed a $200 million initial public offering (IPO), Minnesota’s fifth-largest. He also significantly grew Lawson’s revenue from $200 million to $430 million.

In addition to his responsibilities at XATA, Mr. Coughlan is an active regional business advocate and serves on the board of directors for several organizations, including Securian Financial Group, Inc.  He is also an active regional business advocate and a local and national speaker on a wide variety of business topics. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Steve Chamberlain

EVP, Field Operations

Mr. Chamberlain brings more than 25 years of sales and operational experience to Xata. Prior to joining Xata, Mr. Chamberlain was the senior vice president of sales and client management of Ecova, based in Spokane, Washington. He has also worked for Insite Software in Minneapolis, MN, Infor Global Solutions out of Alpharetta, GA and Lawson Software of St. Paul, MN. He has extensive sales and services experience and brings a high level of knowledge in direct sales, channel sales, inside sales, services and customer relations.

Mr. Chamberlain oversees the sales, services and client satisfaction departments within Xata. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Scott G. Christian

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Christian brings a wealth of financial skills and executive-level experience to his role as Chief Financial Officer of Xata Corporation.

He draws upon a successful career history, which includes serving as president and chief executive officer of Spanlink Communications, Inc., a Minneapolis-based Cisco partner focused on designing, implementing and supporting contact center and customer collaboration solutions. Prior to that, he served as president and chief executive officer of Norstan, Inc., a Minnetonka, Minn., independent communications solutions and services company serving enterprise customers in North America.

Mr. Christian also leveraged his expertise as senior vice president of finance of Ceridian Corporation and chief financial officer of Automatic Data Processing’s Electronic Services Division, in addition to serving on the board of Cyro-Cell International, one of the largest stem cell preservation companies in the United States.

Mr. Christian holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Dayton, and a Master’s degree from Pepperdine University.

Wes Fredenburg

General Counsel

Mr. Fredenburg has been practicing law for more than 30 years. Before joining XATA, he was the General Counsel for Vanguard Car Rental, the holding company for National and Alamo car rentals. At Vanguard he and the executive team performed domestic and international merger and acquisition work, completed an S-1 in preparation for taking Vanguard public, and then, as an alternative, successfully sold the company to private investors. Previously, Mr. Fredenburg was the General Counsel at Velocity Express Corporation, where he assisted the company with its multiple debt and equity financings, corporate governance and NASDAQ compliance. Mr. Fredenburg also has extensive experience in real estate, risk management, human resources, international development and government relations. Prior to serving as in-house counsel, he was a trial attorney at Crowe & Dunlevy, Oklahoma’s oldest and largest law firm.

Scott Meyer

Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer

Scott Meyer has provided marketing counsel, business strategy and executive leadership to a broad range of organizations worldwide for more than 30 years. At Xata, Scott manages all aspects of the company’s marketing, product marketing, brand development and demand generation programs. His previous corporate experience was at Lawson Software where he was Chief Marketing Officer.

Mr. Meyer’s background includes serving as Chief Executive Officer of Shandwick International, one of the world’s top three public relations firms.  At Shandwick, Scott led the integration of 16 separate companies into a unified global brand with 1500 employees in 34 countries and $225 million in revenue.

His former clients at Shandwick included Cargill, General Electric, University of Minnesota, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, MasterCard, Coca-Cola, Northwest Airlines, NCAA, General Motors, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr. Meyer is a graduate of the University of Minnesota.

Odell Tuttle

Chief Technology Officer

Mr. Tuttle joined Xata in September 2011 as Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Xata, Mr. Tuttle was the Chief Technology Officer of Healthland, responsible for driving technology and product direction.

Prior to joining Healthland, Mr. Tuttle also held senior developmental positions with Gearworks, Inc. and Digital River, Inc. Mr. Tuttle is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the CIO/CTO Leadership Council, International .NET User Association (INETA) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Mr. Tuttle earned a Bachelor’s of Business Administration degree from the University of North Dakota and he attended the post-graduate software engineering program at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.