Kitware Announces 2026 Promotions to Support Innovation and Long-Term Growth

Recognizing leadership and technical excellence as the company builds momentum for 2026.

Clifton Park, N.Y. (January 8, 2026) – Kitware is pleased to announce a series of promotions for 2026, recognizing team members whose leadership, expertise, and impact continue to drive the company forward. These advancements reflect Kitware’s strong foundation and growing momentum as it enters a new year of innovation, collaboration, and opportunity. As demand for Kitware’s open-source platforms and custom software solutions continues to expand, these promotions underscore the company’s confidence in its people and its excitement for the growth and progress ahead.

Management Promotions

Arslan Basharat, Ph.D., Director of Multimodal AI
Arslan joined Kitware in 2009 after earning his Ph.D. in computer vision and quickly established himself as a leading researcher and technical leader. Since then, he has played a central role in winning and leading major research programs, sustaining funding across multiple AI domains, and publishing at top-tier AI conferences. Previously serving as team lead and assistant director, Arslan’s promotion to director recognizes his leadership in expanding Kitware’s AI capabilities beyond computer vision to include large language models, natural language processing, and AI alignment. His collaborative approach, commitment to mentoring, and cross-team impact continue to strengthen Kitware’s AI strategy and long-term growth.

Samantha Schmitt, Marketing Communications Manager
Samantha joined Kitware in 2020 and has played an increasingly important role in advancing the company’s strategic marketing efforts. Since joining the team, she has been recognized for her project leadership, marketing expertise, and ability to work across teams to achieve shared goals. Samantha leads cross-functional initiatives that support Kitware’s growth and visibility, including conference exhibits, email marketing, and website content development. She also works closely with technical teams to translate complex work into clear, compelling messaging while exploring new opportunities to further promote Kitware’s capabilities. Her promotion to marketing communications manager reflects her expanding leadership responsibilities and contributions to Kitware’s strategic initiatives.

Principal Promotions

Patrick Avery, Ph.D., Technical Leader, Scientific Computing
Patrick joined Kitware in 2018 as an R&D intern working on materials science projects and has since made significant contributions. He has collaborated closely with teammates to strengthen relationships with stakeholders across academia, government, and industry, ultimately taking on a leadership role in Kitware’s materials science efforts. Patrick now leads multiple projects in this area, including a successful Phase II SBIR that will deliver significant enhancements to Tomviz and further support Kitware’s growing work in scientific data analysis.

Team Promotions

Nick Bearup, Business Development Representative
Nick joined Kitware in 2023 and has played a key role in strengthening Kitware’s business development operations. He supports and maintains core BD tools and processes, coordinates public and private training programs, and helped launch Kitware’s on-demand courses in 2025. His promotion to business development representative reflects his growing expertise and ownership of essential BD functions that support Kitware’s continued growth.

Orkhon Bowman, Accounting Administrator
Orkhon joined Kitware in 2022 and has become a trusted contributor to the company’s expense and travel operations. She supports accurate, timely processing across the organization and has taken on increased responsibility while improving workflows and systems efficiency. Her promotion to accounting administrator reflects her initiative, attention to detail, and growing impact as the Finance team continues to evolve.

Martin Duffy, Senior R&D Engineer, Software and Data
Martin joined Kitware’s Software team in 2022 through Kitware’s Open Source Technology Program and has made significant contributions to the CMake ecosystem. He supported the migration of a large, active codebase from SCons to CMake and has since developed key features to improve build performance and developer productivity. His work on CMake instrumentation and parallel installation enables teams to identify bottlenecks and achieve substantial build-time savings.

Vito Gamberini, Senior R&D Engineer, Software and Data
Vito joined Kitware in 2024 as an R&D engineer and quickly became a key contributor to the CMake project. He has delivered several impactful enhancements, including native pkg-config parsing and automated dependency exports that simplify complex build workflows. Vito has also strengthened Kitware’s CMake tutorial and online course materials, helping improve accessibility and adoption for developers across the community.

Connor Greenwell, Ph.D., Staff R&D Engineer, Computer Vision
Connor joined Kitware in 2021 as an R&D intern and returned as a senior R&D engineer after completing his Ph.D., quickly taking on expanded technical and leadership responsibilities. He has served as chief scientist and project leader on complex research efforts, led successful proposal activities, and secured new government funding. His work continues to strengthen Kitware’s research portfolio and long-term growth.

Andrew Kenyon, Senior Systems Administrator
Andrew joined Kitware in 2022 as a systems administrator and has become a key contributor to the stability, security, and modernization of the company’s IT infrastructure. He supports a wide range of environments, strengthens secure operations, and helps advance compliance initiatives. Andrew’s promotion to senior systems administrator reflects his technical expertise, leadership, and continued impact in a critical operational role.

Mick Neal, Senior Technical Support Specialist, Systems Administration
Mick joined Kitware in 2020 as a technical support specialist and has been a consistent contributor to the company’s IT operations. He supports employee onboarding across locations, helps equip teams with the tools they need, and has played a key role in developing stable, well-documented support processes. His promotion to senior technical support specialist reflects his experience and sustained impact.

Daniel Riehm, Senior R&D Engineer, Computer Vision
Daniel joined Kitware in 2021 as an R&D engineer and has developed deep expertise in video metadata processing, machine learning optimization, and deploying AI models on embedded and edge hardware. He is a trusted technical resource for adapting advanced AI capabilities to real-world constraints, contributing critical software solutions that support Kitware’s applied AI and computer vision work.

Caitlin Ross, Staff R&D Engineer, Scientific Computing
Caitlin joined Kitware in 2019 as an R&D engineer and has made significant contributions across the company’s scientific computing and visualization platforms. She supports government and commercial customers, advances high-performance I/O optimization research, and leads innovative work in network simulation and digital twin development. Her promotion to staff R&D engineer reflects her technical expertise, project leadership, and continued impact across Kitware’s scientific software efforts.

About Kitware

Kitware delivers innovation to its customers. As a software research and development company, Kitware solves the world’s most complex scientific challenges using custom software solutions built on open source technology. In addition to custom software development, the company also offers technical support and training services to anyone using its open source tools. Since its founding in 1998, Kitware has developed a reputation for its unparalleled technical expertise and excellent customer service. The company is proud to be 100% employee-owned. For additional information, visit kitware.com or follow them on LinkedIn and Twitter.