Who We Are
John Chrismer
Chief Executive Officer
John joined Small Axe in August 2022. As CEO he is responsible for the daily operations, business development, sales, client support, and strategic planning to align with the Company’s vision. A 15-year industry veteran who brings a passion for success to grow, expand and support Small Axe. Prior to Small Axe, John served as Business Development Director of Global Channels at ePlus, Inc., NASDAQ ($1.6B Revenue) listed company.
John was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He currently resides with his family in Coronado, CA. He holds a BA in Business Administration from Washington College, Chestertown MD. His passion and life’s work over the past 20 years is developing and mentoring young men as a Lacrosse Coach at Coronado High School.
Chris McGhay
Chief Revenue Officer
A highly recognized, seasoned Senior Strategy and Revenue professional specializing in cutting edge innovative technologies with a strong track record of implementation strategy and “alliance” tactics. Chris has a successful track record of designing and implementing pilot-to-production programs into large “enterprise” segments and establishing clear lanes to scale. He has a keen focus on developing critical path mantra and team motivation measures in both the technology sector and the capital markets sector.
Recently, Chris lead the Business Development team at Avnet, Inc with a focus on driving Xilinx architecture into enterprise organizations across multiple vertical markets. He was also tasked with creating new lines of revenue for Avnet Global through tactical partnerships with a focus on software and service-oriented offerings that provide additional value to Avnet’s current ecosystem of partners, suppliers, and their ever-growing global customer base of over 2 million.
Chris was born and raised in Maryland, he currently resides with his family in Arizona, and he holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Towson University.
Alp Sezen
Chief Technology Officer
A highly reputable, 30+ year Executive with multiple disciplines on the global technology stage. Positions range from Global Sales Leadership and Business Development to Global Design and Strategy for Product Deployment and Support. Strong track record of start-up implementation and scale in segments ranging from VOIP to Long-range Communication solutions for the Railroad Industry. He is credited creating four embedded form factors EmITX, Pico-ITX, Nano-ITX and Femto-ITX.
His efforts and solutions have positively impacted a wide range of industries from; Military applications, Medical, Telco, parallel computing, Industrial, Retail, Oil& Gas, Enterprise IT, storage solutions and currently AI, 5G and distributed edge computing technology implementations.
Alp was born in Yverdon, Switzerland and grew up in Istanbul, Turkey (he speaks English, Turkish and French) graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a Physics Degree and attended graduate school at San Diego State University in Physics.
The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them - preferably in unexpected and helpful ways. - Richard Branson
Founded on Excellence
Small Axe is a team of experienced Enterprise Operators committed to two primary objectives: developing a visionary B2B operating model that focuses on reducing IT operating costs and delivering a platform centered on strategic consumption models rather than traditional maximization approaches. In alignment with the fast-paced nature of change, we remain dynamic and adaptive, continually evolving our value to meet the immediate and future needs of our partners and customers.
Our success and growth are rooted in a clear vision, well-defined goals, and an unwavering commitment to providing best-in-class solutions and value-added services. These enable our customers to achieve meaningful and impactful business outcomes, ensuring that we remain a trusted partner in their digital transformation journey.