Allen Deary

Chief Operating Officer OpenExchange, Inc.

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Allen Deary is Chief Operating Officer of OpenExchange, the professional services firm behind virtual and hybrid corporate events, a role he has held since 2019 when OpenExchange acquired KnowledgeVision Systems, where he was also COO. He is an accountant by training, and the shape of his career follows from that: he co-founded Peritus Software Services in 1991 and served as its chief financial officer, clerk and a director from inception through its 1997 initial public offering, then spent much of the following two decades building and running global outsourced product development organizations — the business of delivering engineering work from China and India to clients in the US, Europe and Asia, which is as much an operational and financial discipline as a technical one.

Career Highlights

• Chief Operating Officer of OpenExchange, Inc., a professional services partner for virtual and hybrid corporate events.
• Co-founded Peritus Software Services in 1991 and served as VP Finance, CFO, Clerk and a director from inception through its July 1997 IPO.
• Chief Operating Officer of KnowledgeVision Systems, leading it through its October 2019 acquisition by OpenExchange.
• Senior Vice President of Hitachi Consulting’s Outsourced Product Development unit, delivering services from development resources in China and India.
• Founder or co-founder of CYA Technologies, ArrAy, Incorporated and Human Asset Technology.
• Began in finance and operations at Honeywell Information Systems, Apollo Computer and Bull Information Systems.

Professional Journey

Deary trained as an accountant at Northeastern University and began in finance and operations roles at three Massachusetts computing companies of the era — Honeywell Information Systems, Apollo Computer, where he was controller for customer support, and Bull Information Systems. At Bull he moved from pure finance into product work as Director of Product Life Cycle Process, developing and implementing worldwide cross-functional product teams, which is the point at which his career stops being a finance career and starts being an operating one.

In 1991 he co-founded Peritus Software Services and served as its Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, and as a director, from inception. Peritus worked on software maintenance and year-2000 remediation, and Deary took it through its initial public offering in July 1997, when he was 38 and one of seven executive officers named in the prospectus. Taking a company public as a co-founding CFO is a particular kind of education in operational discipline, and it is the foundation of everything that follows.

He went on to found or lead several technology companies through the 1990s and 2000s, including CYA Technologies, ArrAy, Incorporated and Human Asset Technology. He then spent a substantial period in outsourced product development, first as Executive Vice President at Sierra Atlantic and later as Senior Vice President of Hitachi Consulting’s Outsourced Product Development unit, building global engineering organizations that delivered from China and India to clients across North America, Europe and Asia. That work combines distributed engineering delivery with the commercial and financial management of it — the kind of role an operator with a CFO’s background is unusually well suited to.

He joined KnowledgeVision Systems as Chief Operating Officer, and when OpenExchange acquired the company in October 2019 he continued in that role at the acquirer. OpenExchange provides the production and technical services behind virtual and hybrid corporate events, a market that expanded sharply in the years immediately after the acquisition, and Deary leads its global service organization.

Education

Northeastern University

Bachelor of Science, Accounting