Leadership Team

Our adroit team of interface designers, software developers, and community architects cultivate Web technology to craft sensible, people-driven products.

Michael DelPrete, President

Mr. DelPrete is a specialist in creating interactive online communities. He has over nine years of experience in the design, development, and growth of online community web projects for a range of State, Federal, and private-sector organizations.

Michael holds a Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he also received Bachelor's degrees in both Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication and Management. Michael's graduate research focus was on online community design. He has instructed several college-level courses in online community design, web application development, interface design, and usability research.

Prior to founding Agora Studios, Michael worked for General Electric, About.com, and the Rensselaer Incubator. While at General Electric, Michael served as the senior user interface developer while developing dozens of web applications. At About.com, Michael was responsible for creating and building a community and working with a large team of volunteers and paid support staff.

As part of the Rensselaer Incubator's senior staff, Michael was responsible for creating the incubator.com project, ramping-up to a team of over a dozen employees and students, and attracting sponsorships and clients. The project grew to include over 3000 members organizations from over 45 countries.

In July 2003, Michael founded Agora Studios. As President, he applies his expertise to lead the company in building burgeoning online communities.

Jonathan Dance, Director of Research and Development

Mr. Dance oversees the development of Agora Studios's proprietary software. He ensures that our framework is consistently well-supported and that it meets our clients' diverse and changing needs.

Jonathan has over eight years of experience with various Internet technologies, including numerous online community technologies. He is an accomplished software engineer and has led the development of several online community platforms utilizing open-source software.

Jonathan has extensive experience with a variety of technologies, such as PHP, Java, web servers, relational databases, and UNIX-based operating systems. In addition to currently leading the development of GrowthLink, Jonathan directs development of AgoraSearch, a full-featured Internet searching technology. Jonathan also manages interfaces between Agora's software and leading Internet mapping services, which he integrates into GrowthLink. In the past, he has developed an enterprise-level polling and feedback system used to collect and collate ideas from a large user community.

Jonathan holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to the founding of Agora Studios, Jonathan worked for the Rensselaer Incubator and BMW of North America.