Board of Directors
Jim Baum
President and CEO, Netezza
As President and CEO, Baum is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company, as well as overseeing its day-to-day operations, global product development, sales and marketing. As an integral part of the leadership team in his previous role as COO, Baum worked to take Netezza public in 2007, as well as drive the company to profitability earlier this fiscal year. Baum brings to Netezza over 20 years of leadership experience with fast-growing companies.
Prior to Netezza, Jim Baum was president and CEO of Endeca. During his five year tenure, he led Endeca's rise from an innovative start-up to the leading provider of innovative information access and delivery software solutions to the Global 2000, building the customer base to more than 270.
Previously, as executive vice president and general manager at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), Baum helped drive the Company's growth to more than $1 billion in revenues during his 11-year tenure. Overseeing PTC's Windchill Business Unit, he was responsible for all aspects of the business, including product strategy, product development, marketing, operations and services.
Jim holds an M.S. in Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He is a member of WPI’s Department of Computer Science Advisory Board and is on the board of Auraria Networks. Baum is an avid flyer and a member of Angel Flight.
Francis Dramis
CEO, F. Dramis, LLC
Francis "Fran" Dramis is currently Chief
Executive Officer of F. Dramis, LLC, a technology consulting
company, a position he has held since February 2007. Prior
to that, Mr. Dramis was Executive Vice President and Chief
Information Officer, E-Commerce & Security for BellSouth
Corporation, a telecommunications company based in Atlanta,
Georgia. Mr. Dramis held a variety of positions at BellSouth,
which he joined in December 1998. Mr. Dramis is also a director
of Avocent Corporation and Ditech Networks, Inc. and serves
on the boards of several private companies.
Robert J. Dunst, Jr.
Former Executive Vice President and Chief Technology
Officer, Albertson's, Inc.
Robert "Bob" Dunst has more than 25
years of experience in the retail and technology industries.
During his career, Bob has served as executive vice president
of supply chain and technology, and chief technology officer,
at Albertson's, Inc. where he became an advocate for
the use of data warehousing technology. Before Albertson's,
Mr. Dunst was vice president of advanced technology and the
Internet business group at Safeway. Mr. Dunst has also served
as a director in the consulting and outsourcing unit at IBM.
He was an Executive Board Member of the Global Commerce Initiative
and World Wide Retail Exchange.
Paul J. Ferri
Founding Partner, Matrix Partners
Paul Ferri, a venture capitalist for more than 30 years, was
the founding partner of Matrix Partners in 1982. Prior to
Matrix, he founded Hellman Ferri Investment Associates (1977
to 1982) and was a general partner of WestVen Management (1970
to 1978).
The family of Matrix Partnerships has achieved industry record-setting
returns over the last decade. In 2003, Ferri was inducted
into the Private Equity Hall of Fame, citing his work "in
founding and helping to build Matrix Partners into one of
the most successful venture firms in the industry." In
February 2001, Forbes magazine selected Ferri as one of the
Top 20 Venture Investors of all time and the "Best VC
in Boston." Also, in 2001, Ferri received the Massachusetts
Telecommunications Council Award for "Venture Capitalist
of the Year."
Paul serves or previously served on the Boards of Directors
of Airvana, Applix, ArrowPoint Communications, Ascend Communications,
Atria Software, Aylus Networks, Banctec, Bytex, Cascade Communications,
Codex Corporation, Empirix, Paradyne, Redstone Communications,
Sonus Networks, Stratus Computer, Sycamore Networks, veveo.tv,
VideoServer, Winphoria Networks, Xyplex and numerous other
private companies.
He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from
Columbia University, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
degree from Polytechnic Institute of New York, and a Bachelor
of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Cornell University.
Peter Gyenes
With over four decades of enterprise software and
systems experience, Gyenes brings to Netezza deep insight
on how to scale technology companies successfully. Prior to
joining Netezza's Board of Directors, Gyenes served
as chairman and CEO of Ascential Software, which was acquired
by IBM in 2005. Before Ascential, Gyenes was chairman and
CEO of Informix Corporation and led the sale of the company's
database business to IBM and the transition from Informix
to Ascential. Gyenes joined Informix through its acquisition
of Ardent Software, where he served as chairman, president
and CEO. Before joining Ardent, Gyenes was president and CEO
of Racal Interlan. Previously, Gyenes served in sales, marketing
and general management positions at Data General, Encore Computer
and Prime Computer. Earlier in his career, Gyenes held sales
and technical positions at Xerox Data Systems and IBM. Gyenes
is a graduate of Columbia University, where he received both
a B.A. in mathematics and an MBA. He also serves on the boards
of a number of public and privately held technology companies,
and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.
Charles F. Kane
President, Chief Operating Officer, One Laptop Per Child
Charles "Chuck" Kane has held several
leadership positions in the technology industry and is currently
the President and Chief Operating Officer of "One Laptop per Child,"
a non-profit organization founded at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology that provides computers and internet access
for students in the developing world. Before this, he was
the Chief Financial Officer of RSA Security, a provider of
security software, which was recently acquired by EMC Corporation.
Other former positions include Chief Financial Officer of
Aspen Technology, a leading supplier of operations management
software to the process industries; President and Chief Executive
Officer of Corechange, Inc., an enterprise software company
that was acquired by Open Text Corporation; and Chief Financial
Officer of Informix Software, a database software provider
acquired by IBM. Kane also held senior financial positions
at Stratus Computer, Inc., Prime Computer, Inc., and Deloitte
& Touche LLP.
Kane holds an MBA degree in International Finance from Babson College and a BBA in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame and is a Certified Public Accountant. He also holds a directorship at Applix, a provider of business performance management software solutions and is on the board of directors of Progress Software, Borland Software and Egenera. Kane is an adjunct professor of finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management and is a frequent speaker at national events related to international financial strategies.
Jit Saxena
Chairman of the Board, Netezza
As CEO and co-founder of Netezza, Jit Saxena, a business-savvy entrepreneur, brought an impressive portfolio of accomplishments, skills and experience to the company. Under his leadership, the company grew and had a successful initial public offering.
Previously, Saxena was founder, chairman and CEO of Applix
Inc., a leading provider of analytical CRM software that he
took public in 1994. While at Applix, Saxena guided the company
to a leadership position in the CRM market and achieved an
eight-fold increase in market value subsequent to the IPO.
Through his vision, the company was continually an innovator
in new high growth markets.
Prior to founding Applix, Saxena was a senior director at
Data General where he was responsible for the development
of the company's software products. At Data General, he held
several other senior management positions and built a successful
development organization that introduced industry-leading
software in many categories.
Saxena earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from Michigan
State University, an MBA from Boston University and a B. Tech
(EE) from the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai). In
July 2003, he was named an Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur
of the Year and was recently named a Mass High Tech All-Star.
J. Chris Scalet
Executive Vice President, Global Services and Chief Information Officer, Merck & Co., Inc.
J. Chris Scalet is Executive Vice President, Global Services and Chief Information Officer at Merck & Co., Inc., a global research-driven pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs. Mr. Scalet has served as Chief Information Officer since joining Merck in March 2003 and as Executive Vice President, Global Services since January 2008. Mr. Scalet has held a variety other senior positions with Merck, including Senior Vice President, Global Services and Senior Vice President, Information Services. Prior to joining Merck, Mr. Scalet was Senior Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at International Paper Company, a global forest products, paper and packaging company, and Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at MAPCO, Inc., a design and construction company.
Mr. Scalet received his bachelor's degree in management science and computer systems from Oklahoma State University and completed the executive development program at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
Edward J. Zander
Edward J. Zander has spent more than 35 years in the technology sector. He has played a key role in shaping some of the major paradigm shifts in technology that impact the world today. These include the move from mainframes to minicomputers; minicomputers to workstations; PCs to networking and to the internet; hardware to software; and the revolution in wireless devices and mobility.
Ed was most recently chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Motorola. During his four-year tenure, he made the RAZR the best-selling cell phone in history and reshaped Motorola's image worldwide with the popular "Hello Moto" campaign. He sharpened Motorola's edge in technology innovation; delivered on 12 consecutive quarters of revenue growth; streamlined the business to increase operating efficiencies worldwide; improved significantly the balance sheet and acquired and divested businesses to strengthen the company's competitive position. During his four years the company doubled its revenue and achieved double digit earnings for the first time in over a decade.
Prior to Motorola, Ed was president and chief operating officer of Sun Microsystems until 2002. During his 15 years at the company, he grew Sun to $18 billion in revenues; established the company as number one in the server market; and built it into the pre-eminent supplier of network software infrastructure with Solaris and Java. In addition Ed was responsible for developing the "dot in dot com" campaign establishing Sun as a leader in Internet computing. Before Sun, Ed worked at Apollo Computer as VP of Marketing and Data General in a number of marketing and engineering positions.
Ed was also managing director at Silver Lake Partners, in 2003 a leading private equity fund, and has served on the board of directors for several technology companies. Today he is a director of Netezza Corp. Ed also served as chairman of the Technology CEO Council in Washington D.C. and has been on a number of civic and philanthropic boards. Ed is a member of the Board of Trustees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and as a member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the School of Management at Boston University.
Ed received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a master's degree in business administration as well as an honorary Ph.D. from Boston University. Ed and his wife, Mona, have two sons and reside in Carmel California.
