Chairman
Ralph M. Shoffner, DLS

Ralph M. Shoffner, DLS, Board Chairman provides logistical planning and organizational support for all business activity of Ringgold. His wife, Alice Shoffner, actively assists in customer support. For OpenRFP Ralph maintains the catalog of functional descriptors and associated XML tags for describing vendor products and services. The various features, benefits, and statements about functionality are used by libraries as specifications for online RFPs. Ralph's doctorate is in Library Science.
Phone: 1-503-645-3502

Research Director
Chris Leamy
Chris was one of the pioneers of the information world, starting his career with OSTI, the predecessor of the British Library Research Department. He left the BL Chief Executive’s office to become Assistant Secretary at the Department of Culture Media and Sport responsible for UK libraries and the UK’s representation at the European Commission for science and technology. Having taken early retirement he worked as a consultant for the EC and for companies such as Dialog (then MAID) working on automatic database matching and indexing.

Chris’s primary responsibilities are the management of Identify database and the audit research work.

Management Support Team

Data Manager: Michelle Koster
Michelle began her career in the Customer Service Department of Swets Information Services, UK after reading Philosophy at Exeter University. She was previously employed in the Marketing Department of Professional Books, a Butterworth Company. In freelance, Ms. Koster has over 20 years experience in publishing and the information industries, including research, project management, indexing, marketing, and editorial roles. Michelle manages the research and support teams within Ringgold and is the main contact point for Ringgold’s Identify customers

Customer Support: Rachel Taylor
Rachel is a Graduate Librarian from the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University) with over 15 years’ experience within business information services and software houses. She has experience in managing support and development teams and is an experienced Business Analyst producing software solution requirements for national clients. Her main responsibilities are customer support and training, and she also works in testing and quality assurance for Identify web services.

Assistant Data Manager: Ankie Visschedijk
Ankie is a Graduate Librarian who worked for the BBC and a variety of media companies after graduating in Forestry from the Agricultural University of Wageningen. She is responsible for the European research team and for quality control of the Identify database.

Assistant Data Manager: Giselle Rawlins
After graduating with a first class honours degree in Information Management, Giselle worked at BBC Information & Archives as a researcher.
After a career break she is now a data quality controller for the Identify database.