About BlackStone Discovery

John P. Kelly | CEO

John P. Kelly is the founder of BlackStone Discovery. He is responsible for the company’s strategic direction, overall management and growth. John works closely with BlackStone Discovery partners and customers to streamline all aspects of the eDiscovery and information management process. During his 20-year career working in the legal technology industry, John has been on the forefront of innovation – creating the first nationwide legal document services firm, and originating the first legal scanning and processing business on the West Coast.

With his experiences and knowledge for the discovery industry, John has given the legal community an opportunity to receive top notch discovery services without having to put a hole in their pockets. Establishing BlackStone as Silicon Valley’s Trusted Discovery partner, John has created a loyal client base with his ability to identify the underlying issues of the legal industry and implementing best practices.

John’s passion for bringing the best people and technology together at BlackStone has allowed clients to receive the tools to win their case. From day one of founding BlackStone, John has had the belief of giving back to the community. Serving the less fortunate local community with pro bono services is a key part of BlackStone’s business model that John has implemented. He continues to look for new opportunities to assist the needy.

Prior to starting BlackStone Discovery, John held executive positions at Garage Technology Ventures, Netscape Communications, NightRider Overnite Copy Service (IKON Office Solutions), and the law offices of Morrison & Foerster. During John’s career he has been recognized for his success in new company creation, building high energy teams, and in developing and delivering technology for the legal industry.

John holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Masters in Business Administration from Santa Clara University. He is active in the local community and in coaching youth sports.

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Mr. Duarte joined BlackStone as a senior manager in 2013 and has made significant contributions to the success and growth of the company as a whole. Mr. Duarte has experience providing e‐discovery expertise to global corporations, government agencies, technology start‐ups, and law firms. Prior to joining BlackStone Discovery, Mr. Duarte was an E‐discovery Project Attorney at Crowell & Moring LLP, where he managed e‐discovery projects and supervised contract attorneys in the review of complex healthcare litigation matters for national Managed Care Organizations.

Mr. Duarte is responsible for all operational aspects of BlackStone’s Client Solution, Forensic & Investigative Services, and Data Operations Groups, as well as the Sales and Marketing teams. Mr. Duarte oversees BlackStone’s Advanced Document Review Group, assuring every client gets the most cost‐effective and defensible document production results available. He focuses his expertise on advising clients about the legal and technology‐based solutions best suited to address their overall information governance, litigation readiness, and e‐discovery needs.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Mr. Duarte is an accomplished negotiator, winning negotiations championships at UC Hastings and the Robert Merhige National Negotiation Competition.

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John is responsible for the continued national expansion of BlackStone Discovery’s service offerings including Information Governance & Litigation Readiness (IG|LR), Computer Forensics, eDiscovery services, and Managed Attorney Review. He brings to the company more than 17 years of industry experience as a leader and mentor, designing custom solutions and inspiring teams to provide innovative ideas and efficient results. He has also acted as a consultant, providing strategic information governance and eDiscovery expertise together allowing corporations and law firms to materially reduce the risks and costs associated with responding to investigations and eDiscovery obligations.

Prior to joining BlackStone Mr. Munro was Vice President of Managed Services Operations at Discovia, where he focused on designing and implementing eDiscovery and litigation readiness solutions for many cutting edge technology companies and top law firms. For 10 years prior, Mr. Munro was a critical component of the organic, client-supported growth of Orange Legal Technologies. As COO of Orange LT, he empowered the company’s most critical assets, its employees, to create their own success.

After completing his BA in Management Information Systems from Washington State University, Mr. Munro began his initial foray into eDiscovery by building custom software, which led to a role at Lighthouse eDiscovery where he facilitated the company’s rebranding and entrance into the eDiscovery market.

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Minh Tran has been with BlackStone Discovery since the company was founded, and is responsible for all operations including: data service metrics, evaluating and implanting cutting edge software, maintaining and updating processing and recruiting technical expertise. As Vice President of Operations, Minh is responsible for the related production groups and the processing and delivery of Electronic Data Discovery, which he has established himself as an expert. Minh has significant experience building solutions and managing large-scale computer forensic collections.

With over 10 years of operations management experience, Minh continuously delivers high quality customer experiences, while providing profitable results, an influential aspect of the growing success of BlackStone Discovery. In addition to his role as VP of operations, he assists the team with IT, accounting and client services. His hard work and dedication to management allow BlackStone to continuously keep clients in control.

Minh brings over a decade of professional services and production management experience to his role at BlackStone Discovery. Prior to joining the company, Minh held management positions at Remec Semiconductor, H&R Block and SCKS. Throughout his career, Minh developed his consultative approach while delivering consistent financial results and maintaining high-level client relationships. Minh holds a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from the University of Phoenix.

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Parkash K Khatri | Director of Discovery Services

Parkash joined the BSD team in 2016 and is responsible for national business strategy and development.  He has a unique blend of in-house and 3rd party consultant experience with particular focus on e-Discovery, Computer forensic, Information governance and Audit & Compliance in the Life Sciences and the Financial Services Industries.  He is passionate about leveraging his in-house experience at fortune 500 companies (Fifth Third Bank, Cardinal Health and CareFusion) and applying that knowledge to address client needs to establish on-demand and scalable workflows that deliver cost effective solutions with quality and consistency.

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Thomas Gersey, Esq. | Director Client Solutions

Thomas Gersey joined BlackStone as the company’s director of client solutions in 2016. Mr. Gersey’s primary role is managing BlackStone’s case management and professional services team focused on delivering early litigation insights and superior project management. Mr. Gersey is also charged with assisting the company’s clients as they adopt several new cloud-based technologies, including enterprise chat platform Slack.

Mr. Gersey specializes in advanced analytics at the early case assessment and review stages, bringing a deep understanding of litigation strategy, e-discovery best practices, and business needs to every matter he manages. Mr. Gersey has special expertise in privilege, notably in helping clients navigate the sensitive issues surrounding privilege review workflows, QC safeguards, permissible redactions, production disputes, and defensible privilege logs.

Prior to BlackStone, Gersey worked as a discovery and document review staff attorney for Google. He also held appointments at De Novo Legal and Black Letter Discovery and has a corporate finance background. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Legal Studies from the University of Minnesota, and a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego.

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Bryce M. Welke | Director of Forensics

Bryce Welke has been with BlackStone Discovery since 2013. As Director of Forensics, Bryce is responsible for delivering eDiscovery and Forensic services to BlackStone’s corporate and law firm clients. These services include eDiscovery consulting, forensic collections, digital evidence analysis and related investigative reporting. He is EnCE® certified and has extensive experience with Cellebrite, FTK and BlackBag Technology (i.e. MacQuisition & BlackLight). He has an advanced technical background and is responsible for managing forensic investigations and workflows while adapting BlackStone’s forensic technology solutions for the ever evolving digital evidence sphere.

Prior to BlackStone Discovery Bryce was a Forensic Technology Consultant at StoneTurn Group LLP, where he managed and supported many high profile forensic investigations. He holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California Santa Barbara, and was the founder of the UC Santa Barbara Ice Hockey Team.

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Danny Cheun | Solutions Architect

As Solutions Architect, Danny is responsible for the development of BlackStone Discovery’s proprietary eDiscovery technology solutions, custom client software solutions, automation, and quality control. In addition, Danny oversees BlackStone Discovery’s infrastructure development and data security. Prior to BlackStone Discovery, Danny Cheun was a Linux Programmer for ReadyTech Corporation and a Network Support Engineer at Adax, Inc. where he worked in software development, specializing in cloud and virtualization technology, and quality assurance.

Danny handled numerous responsibilities including developing and maintaining programs to automate deployments of Windows and Linux based VMs, sanity checks, generating automated statistic reports, enhancing software features and fixing bugs. On the QA side, he has set up, configured and benchmarked complex gateway and telecom products. His programming languages include: Java, BASH, Python, Tcl/Expect, C/C++, and Xcode, to name a few. Among his many diverse accomplishments, Danny developed a working demo for a new cloud hosting solution using python and open source APIs, and also developed a custom network program that transmitted specific telecom protocol packets to troubleshoot and resolve interoperability issues between three global leading telecom equipment vendors.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from California State University, East Bay and a UNIX/Linux System Administration certificate from the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a certificate of distinction. In his spare time Danny enjoys learning new languages, website/software development and photography.

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