Why Onit

Eric Smith brings extensive experience in software development and technical leadership to Onit. With nearly twenty years of experience in the legal technology industry, he has broad domain experience in the legal electronic invoicing and spend management arena. As Onit’s co-founder, COO and Chief Security Officer, he is responsible for the technical and strategic direction of the company’s products.

Prior to Onit, he co-founded Datacert, a leading provider of corporate, legal and IP spend and matter management solutions, serving as the CTO for nearly 10 years. During his tenure at Datacert, he was a key member of the executive team that assisted with growing the company to more than 200 employees and was responsible for managing the overall technical architecture of the company’s products and services.

He was also instrumental in providing cross-functional direction and leadership for research and development initiatives, product development and managing a complex and globally distributed workforce.

Eric holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Methodist University.

York Richards brings more than 15 years of finance and operations experience to Onit, including CFO positions at several privately held companies in the Internet and technology industries. He has built large, multi-national finance organizations, completed many strategic acquisitions and divestitures, raised capital in debt and equity markets and managed multiple shareholder exits.

A seasoned executive with extensive experience managing finance organizations for high-growth companies, he most recently served as CFO at Riversand Technologies, Inc. where he was responsible for overall financial operations and reporting. As CFO at Onit, York is responsible for ensuring the finance organization can help the company drive growth while capitalizing on the accelerating demand for software solutions that drive efficiency and process automation.

York holds a master’s degree in science and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Texas A&M University.

Chris Fields joined Onit with more than 25 years of technology research and software development experience, including several key management and executive positions at various high-growth companies, including Datacert, Digicontract and Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions.

Chris most recently served as CTO for Innovative Interfaces where he led the engineering and product management team and was responsible for converting client/server-based technologies into a multi-tenant system leveraging cloud-based microservices for global library systems. He is well-versed in leading technology strategy and all aspects of product engineering and was one of the key inventors named on a patent of a high-profile technology platform.

As CTO at Onit, Chris will be responsible for overseeing the technical vision of the company and leading product research, engineering and development efforts. He will also be responsible for evaluating and implementing new systems and infrastructure and ensuring technologies are used efficiently and securely. Additionally, he will build quality assurance and data protection processes and communicate the company’s technology strategy to our consulting and business partners and customers.

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Baylor University.

Matt DenOuden has nearly 30 years of legal industry experience, including a dozen years practicing law as a partner in a boutique defense firm in Hartford, Connecticut. While there, he started and grew an early e-discovery technology practice. In 2002, he left private practice to join a young e-billing company, TyMetrix. As vice president of sales for TyMetrix for 14 years, he helped take the company from four clients and $2 million in revenue to 250 clients and $60 million in revenue.

Matt has spent his career working with clients and industry leaders and has a passion for developing solutions to manage the business of law. Most recently, he was a managing director at Huron Consulting (now Consilio) where he worked closely with legal operations leaders around the country as they devised operational strategies and technology roadmaps for their law departments.

Matt has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Hartford and a J.D. from The University of Connecticut School of Law.