Howard Berke

Energy

A clear path to divergent

THE JOB: Co-founder, Chairman and CEO Konarka Technologies Inc.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Founded or co-founded 13 startups; Serves as Konarka’s delegate to the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers and sits on the board of directors for the American Council on Renewable Energy; Critical voice in bringing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to the medical mainstream

“I like to think about what the world is going to be like in 15 to 20 years and find the opportunities, and then be the architect of the company that will make it happen.”

BY EFRAIN VISCAROLASAGA, Staff writer

Howard Berke takes the road less traveled. Consistently, over the course of his career, it has led him to what Franz Johanson, author of “The Medici Effect,” calls “the intersection: a place where ideas from different fields and cultures meet and collide, ultimately igniting an explosion of extraordinary new discoveries.”

In fact, Berke is cited and quoted several times in Johanson’s book as an example of the phenomenon.

“Unlike other people who found companies in one industry, I like to do things in disparate ones,” he said. “I like to find new things and rapidly learn the industry and market.”

His inclination to try things never attempted has not always been met with a warm reception. Many times his ideas have been met with blank stares and even snickers.

“No on can accuse me of being late, but I have been accused of being too early,” he said. “I’ve tracked around the world with ideas, and a lot of times my ideas are in the minority. When I went around 15 years ago saying voice was going to be over IP (Internet protocol), lots of people thought I was nuts.”

That company was called White Pine Software and was a web-based videoconferencing business that went public in 1996, long before most people had even heard of VoIP.

Earlier still, Berke made his first big hit in the 1980s with a company called ADAC Laboratories, one of the first developers of magnetic resonance imaging for medical use. That company later sold for $1 billion.

The financial success and corresponding accolades are nice but, in the end, what really gets Berke excited is finding the opportunities where two seemingly disparate industries come together.

“A lot of people start with a technology and choose the opportunity to make it fit,” he said. “I like to think about what the world is going to be like in 15 to 20 years and find the opportunities, and then be the architect of the company that will make it happen.”

His inspiration for Konarka’s combination of solar and nanotechnologies came from the company’s late co-founder Sukant Tripathy, a renowned chemist from UMass Lowell who died tragically only weeks before Konarka was due to launch. The company name, taken from a Hindu temple in India dedicated to the sun god Surya, is a tribute to the late Tripathy.

Berke wasn’t actively pursuing Tripathy when the two met. He had been interested in material sciences and had come across Tripathy at a conference. The result was Konarka, which has accumulated considerable venture capital and is developing several products Berke says will change the world, much in the same way MRIs and VoIP have. “When I’m an old man and look back, I am not going to measure myself by the yardstick of dollars and cents, but whether or not I have made an impact on humanity,” he said.

He may already be well on his way. “When I was working on MRI technology, I was thinking I could impact the lives of tens of millions of people. When I was working on Internet stuff, I could impact the lives of hundreds of millions. With Konarka, it could be billions,” he said.

It would be out of character for Berke to not already be thinking about the next decade’s opportunity — and he admits he is, but he isn’t spilling the beans. Not yet.

James “Jay” Bertelli

Hardware

Roots growing stronger

THE JOB: Co-founder, president, chief executive officer Mercury Computer Systems Inc.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Drove revenue growth 35 percent to $250.2 million in fiscal 2005, the strongest revenue year in Mercury’s history; Acquired five companies over the past year; Has helped Mercury and its employees raise $362,000 since 1994 for The Women’s Lunch Place in Boston

“It’s a constant reminder that a $3 billion company can be out of business in no time.”

BY ETHAN FORMAN, Staff writer

In an age when high tech chief executives are known to hop around, Mercury Computer Systems Inc. chairman, president and chief executive officer James R. “Jay” Bertelli is content to stay put.

“There are a lot of what I call ‘hired-gun CEOs’ that are put in place to pretty up a company to put it up for sale,” said Bertelli, 55. “For me, I get my kicks out of seeing this business grow and providing opportunities for the associates.”

As a sign of appreciation to associates, in 1999 he leased 20 Porsche Boxster sports cars for managers after they exceeded expectations.

And while he finds nothing wrong with the CEO-changing strategy that enables startups to innovate and create value, Bertelli is no “serial entrepreneur.” He has stayed for almost 25 years at one company.

Bertelli, who co-founded Mercury in 1981, is the main driver of the company that develops embedded computers for defense, homeland security, energy and medical diagnostics industries, among others.

In almost 25 years, the Chelmsford company has grown from eight employees to 850 worldwide. Besides its red brick and glass corporate headquarters on Riverneck Road, the company maintains 17 sales, support or research and development offices in North America, Asia and Europe.

And Bertelli has also bucked another trend along the way.

In an age when hardware sales have taken it on the chin, publicly traded Mercury had its best fiscal year ever with revenue in fiscal 2005 reported at $250.2 million, a 35 percent leap over fiscal 2004.

Mercury has acquired five companies within the past year, including Echotek Corp. of Huntsville, Ala., for $49 million in cash and stock.

Bertelli, who was selected in 2002 as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for technology manufacturing in New England, earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University, where he served in an ROTC training program. He then served in the Army Signal Corps in Germany.

He worked for RCA as a systems engineer on early mainframe computers. In 1975, he signed on with Digital Equipment Corp., where he worked as a marketing manager.

In 1979, a friend pulled him into Analogic Corp., a move that would eventually give rise to Mercury.

“It was really at Analogic that the concept of array processing was being developed,” Bertelli said. About that time, Bertelli came up with the idea for embedded devices that could perform a variety of computing tasks at high speeds.

Devices that need a lot of processing power include radar, sonar and other defense applications. “The business model (was) going after the low end of the marketplace, where there wasn’t any competition at the time,” he said.

After Bertelli started the company, he spent a year looking for money. In 1983, he was joined by Bob Frisch, vice president of advanced development, and John Nitzche. It got an early boost in cash, office and lab space from Data General.

Today, Bertelli said he takes nothing for granted. He said his office overlooks the Wang towers, and the sight of it without Wang as a tenant helps him stay on his toes.

“It’s a constant reminder that a $3 billion company can be out of business in no time,” he said.

Chuck Digate

Internet

A passion for ideas, people

THE JOB: Founder, president, chief executive officer Convoq Inc.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Raised a total of $17 million in venture funding during the last two years for Convoq; Served as president and chief executive officer of MathSoft Inc. (now Insightful Corp.); Founded Beyond Inc., later sold it to Banyan Systems; Sits on the board of overseers for Boston’s Museum of Science

“Coming up with a great idea and coming up with the nucleus of a team that shares the same passion, and then selling that idea to investors is a great experience.”

BY EFRAIN VISCAROLASAGA, Staff writer

In hindsight, it seems a simple prediction — e-mail will become ubiquitous.

But in 1990, the future of e-mail was still undetermined. There were rumors the government may charge for it, as it does for postal mail. Some speculated there may be interoperability issues, and even the nature and expanse of the Internet itself was yet to be realized.

But Lotus Development Corp. employee Chuck Digate knew e-mail would be the application that would drive communication on the Internet. He had spent four years at Lotus looking at new technologies and was certain there was a business to be made in the new medium.

Digate had been planning his foray into entrepreneurship since he was in college at MIT. There, and later in graduate school at the University of Michigan, he was exposed to successful entrepreneurs, and he knew that was the path he would eventually take.

In 1990 he started Beyond Inc., a company designed to take advantage of the rise of e-mail by using its power within the enterprise. It was his first venture-backed company and did well. Digate helped the company raise a total of $14 million and eventually sold it to Banyan Systems in 1995.

“I always thought I would start my own company,” he said. “Coming up with a great idea and coming up with the nucleus of a team that shares the same passion, and then selling that idea to investors is a great experience.”

After several years on the public company side with MathSoft Inc., Digate went through the startup process again, founding Convoq Inc. in 2002. The company is founded on a similar premise as Beyond, but this time Digate is betting on instant messaging.

Today, IM has become a near rampant application in the online collaboration world, but it has yet to proliferate as a business application. Convoq sits on the precipice of the industry, and, said Digate, this is the moment for which the company has been planning.

“I think we’ve finally found a market and are looking to move into a high-growth phase,” he said.

Convoq has closed $17 million in financing and is ready to make IM a business application, moving it from the consumer proliferation it has experienced over the past few years. The company is still in its early phases, with 31 people, but has product ready and is preparing to do battle with some of the industry’s leaders, like Macromedia Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

But Digate is confident. He’s gone up against the big guys before and is ready to do it again. The hard part, and the part he enjoys most, is complete. He has sold the idea to investors and built a top-flight team with experience at bigger companies like Lotus and MathSoft/Insightful.

All that’s left is the waiting. Waiting for the moment Digate knows is coming — when IM becomes ubiquitous as a business application, just like e-mail.

Stephen J. Killeen

Multimedia

A marketer at heart

THE JOB: President and CEO of WorldWinner Inc.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Oversaw WorldWinner Inc. as one of the six fastest growing companies in New England, according to Deloitte and Touche 2005 New England’s Fast 50; Was president of Terra Lycos U.S., a top web destination; Served as president and CEO of Raging Bull, which sold to web portal AltaVista in the late 1990s

“I spent a lot of time explaining to people why what we were doing was legal.”

BY ETHAN FORMAN, Staff writer

WorldWinner Inc. president and chief executive officer Stephen Killeen, 43, loves consumer websites with business models so revolutionary they leave regulators’ heads spinning.

“I am a marketer,” Killeen said. “I use the Internet and interactive channels to acquire customers and maintain customers and satisfy customers.”

By some measures, there are a lot of satisfied customers of Newton’s WorldWinner, a provider of online competitions. But there are also a lot of questions, too, as Killeen insists the company does not provide a source of gambling but entertainment where users can win small prizes.

The company jogged to sixth place in the Deloitte & Touche 2005 New England Fast 50 program with a 2,386 percent increase in revenues over five years. And the company’s online competitions are played by 14 million registered users who competed in 100 million tournaments last year.

WorldWinner, which started in 1999, is an online site that provides a platform for skilled competitions. Players can compete for prizes they put up. WorldWinner does not make a cut of the winnings, but makes money through a portion of the player’s entry fee.

Killeen said his having to explain his Internet company today reminds him of earlier days, when he helped develop an online brokerage firm. In the early 1990s, Killeen was senior vice president of DLJ Direct, a company that helped pioneer online stock trading.

In 1991, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. tried to shrink-wrap the retail brokerage experience electronically. Those were the days before the web, and DLJ’s services were distributed over online subscriber services like Prodigy.

But financial regulators were stumped, Killeen said, because online trading didn’t involve brokers making trades. “I spent a lot of time explaining to people why what we were doing was legal,” he said.

After getting DLJ Direct up and running, in 1997, Killeen went back to work at Fidelity Investments, where he had worked prior to DLJ. He helped jump-start Fidelity’s online trading.

Around 1999, David Wetherell, then the CEO of CMGI Inc., recruited Killeen to run Raging Bull, a financial message board started by several college students. As Killeen recalls it, Wetherell brought him in to provide “adult supervision.” The company raised $20 million and was later sold to AltaVista, a web portal that CMGI and Compaq had investments in.

Killeen went on to become president of Marketing Services Group Inc., MSGi, for about six months before Bob Davis, the head of Terra Lycos, called to ask what job might interest Killeen. “Well,” Killeen recalls telling Davis, “the best job I could think of was yours — and he said, ‘that’s the one I was thinking of.’”

He joined Terra Lycos as president soon afterward. In 2001, business proved a challenge — before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Killeen left Terra Lycos near the end of 2002. It was in the midst of some time off the WorldWinner opportunity materialized.

“When I looked at (WorldWinner), it reminded me so much of my time at DLJ,” Killeen said.

Dr. Daniel B. Kopans

Life Sciences

Cancer pioneer seeking a cure

THE JOB: Director, Breast-Imaging Center, Massachusetts General Hospital; Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Holds numerous patents, including one for a tomosynthesis system for breast imaging; Has written a widely referenced textbook on aspects of radiology; Has received the American College of Radiology Service Award

“I am most excited when we discover something new that can have a major effect on our care.”

BY DYKE HENDRICKSON, Senior staff writer

Dr. Daniel Kopans is a pioneer in a life-or-death field.

Kopans is the director of the breast-imaging center at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The department manages the medical agendas of scores of patients per day, some of whom are making return visits to learn whether they have breast cancer.

Kopans is also leading a team of physicians and researchers from Mass General, Brandeis University and Mercury Computer Systems Inc., Chelmsford, in the final stages of developing what he hopes will be a faster, more effective way to detect breast cancer through imaging. The research is known as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT).

In his application, 11 images are taken during a seven-second session. The images can be melded into one “focused” image so diagnosticians can identify small lesions that might not be ordinarily discernible.

Study managers say images can now be processed in several minutes rather than a couple days.

The “parent” of this collaboration is GE Healthcare, which is committed to providing the commercial product when tests are completed. The product could be on the market within two years.

Tomosynthesis should have been embraced two years ago,” Kopans said. “We should be doing studies to prove the Magnetic Resonance Imaging can save additional lives, but all this takes money.”

With the public interest increasing in the drive to control this disease, Kopans is among the nation’s leading medical figures in this crucial and high-visibility field.

“We have had a major impact on breast cancers through early detection (mammography screening), but we still have far too many women dying,” he said. “I am most excited when we discover something new that can have a major effect on our care. It might be as simple as finding a better way to guide surgeons to a small lesion that the surgeon cannot feel, or the development of something as complex but elegant as digital breast tomosynthesis.”

Kopans, a native of Newton, said he has always been interested in science. As an undergraduate at Harvard, he realized he loved science but did not think he could be a pure scientist.

“I recognized that medicine was a good combination of science and a field that also could benefit society,” he said.

He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1973, and has spent most of the past three decades affiliated with Mass General. He has been a guest speaker and lecturer at many universities and institutes.

The waiting room of Kopans’ lab is often filled with tense women waiting to hear news that can be grim. But Kopans said he attempts to focus on improvements that help save lives.

“The death rate remains high but we have had a marked impact due to early detection,” he said. “I am optimistic that we can do even better than we are already doing. The use of improved technology will mean earlier detection and better chances for a cure.”

David Mahoney

Software

Serial exec knows CEO role

THE JOB: President and CEO of Applix Inc.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Applix’s share price has jumped from $1.25 two years ago to more than $6 last month, driving revenue up 20 percent in 2004; Mahoney has overseen six straight profitable quarters; Has led ePresence Inc., Sovereign Hill Software, LeadingSide Inc. and Verbind Inc.

“This is the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been in this industry.”

BY ETHAN FORMAN, Staff writer

Applix Inc. president and chief executive officer David Mahoney, 60, remembers having lunch with a longtime venture capitalist friend during the midst of the Internet bubble in the late 1990s.

Over lunch, the VC said, “You know Dave,” Mahoney recalled, “look at the world around us. The entrepreneurs are 25 years old. The investors are 35 years old. Guys like us, they don’t even need us anymore.”

Perhaps the VC should have hedged that bet against Mahoney.

In 2003, Mahoney took the reins of the 140-person, Westborough-based Applix, a stalwart Massachusetts software company dating back to 1983. Mahoney had been on the company’s board for more than 10 years by that time.

In 2000, Applix had lost its focus in customer relationship management and IT services. The board asked Mahoney to step in for 45 days in the interim, but when that expired, the board asked him to stay.

The directors expressed belief that Applix had some untapped value in a business intelligence analytics product, TM1, that it picked up in 1995 from a small company in New Jersey with the idea of gluing it to its CRM products. Mahoney saw that TM1, is used in planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting, could be the company’s lifeblood as a stand-alone product. So he sold the company’s services and CRM businesses to Applix’s partners to focus on TM1.

His bet paid off.

When Mahoney took over, the company’s share price stood at $1.25. On Sept. 29, the stock was trading at $6.26 a share. The company’s market capitalization ranges from $90 million to $100 million. In 2004, Mahoney drove revenue for software licenses up 22.7 percent over 2003. Growth of software licenses should be in the 20 percent to 30 percent range this year, he said. The company has enjoyed six consecutive, profitable quarters.

Today, more than 2,000 customers are using TM1, and Mahoney has taken the company back to being a high-growth software seller. Revenue is in the $31 million-a-year range, and the company’s guidance for 2005 is approximately $37 million to $40 million.

Mahoney has made a good fit at the top of Applix. A software industry veteran and a former Data General executive from 1973 to 1983, Mahoney had turned around companies and knew a thing or two about analytics. As the former CEO of Verbind Inc., he also dealt with similar software. He sold that company to SAS Institute before being recruited to Applix. Mahoney said he enjoys the challenge of a turnaround more than the startup, and he has experience with both. “I love these change situations,” he said. “They are so much fun under the right situation.”

He founded and for 14 years ran networking software maker ePresence Inc., formerly Banyan Systems Inc., after he left Data General in 1983. In 1998, he served as president and CEO of Sovereign Hill Software Inc., which merged with Dataware Technologies Inc.

Then, for three years, he worked as CEO of LeadingSide Inc., formerly Dataware Technologies, after the merger. He went to work for Verbind in May 2001.

Applix has given Mahoney the best reward, personally, in his 30-plus years in high tech.

“This is the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been in this industry,” he said.

J.C. Murphy

Telecom

A first-rate communicator

THE JOB: President, Excel Switching Corp.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Served five years of active duty as an officer in U.S. Coast Guard; Helped lead Excel Switching through an IPO in 1997, an acquisition by Lucent Technologies in 1999 and return to independence in 2003

“It’s about communication, and if people are communicating they probably aren’t fighting. If we can have a hand in that, we can help stabilize the world.”

BY EFRAIN VISCAROLASAGA, Staff writer

J.C. Murphy learned almost everything he needed to know about running a successful company in the U.S. Coast Guard.

“The opportunity I had early on to work with all kinds of people on all kinds of jobs is something I still benefit from,” he said. “I did everything from cleaning the showers to crawling through engine rooms to buying the boats. If you are willing to work at every position, people will respect that when you ask them to do it.”

In fact, Murphy tells a story of training on one of the tall ships and being asked to climb to the top of the mast, in high wind, to furl the sails. He knew the senior officer asking him to do it had been there before himself — and that was an important incentive in getting him to the top. Later, when it came his turn to give the order, it was followed in kind.

“They (Coast Guard) force you to do every part of the process and work at every position,” he said. “Through that, you get a great sense of the whole organization and understand it end to end.”

Near the end of his Coast Guard tenure, Murphy was plucked by Robert Ross of ADC Telecommunications and started a career in the telecommunications industry. Later, knowing Murphy was looking for something closer to the startup arena, Ross sent him to Robert Madonna, founder of Excel Switching, and Ross’ next door neighbor at the time.

“Excel was a small startup above a Chinese restaurant in a strip mall at the time,” he said.

Murphy took the job.

Excel has come a long way from the sweet-and-sour-soup-soaked air of that strip mall. An initial public offering in 1997; a $1.3 billion acquisition by Lucent Technologies in 1999 and a subsequent spinout from its parent company in 2003. Murphy has been integral in the company’s development each step of the way, and now sits as president of the company.

This past summer, the company made a splash of its own in the acquisition market, snatching up local enterprise networking gear maker Brooktrout Inc. for $173 million.

His Coast Guard experience has helped him keep most of the Excel team that went to Lucent together, bringing the benefits of a large corporation to the more intimate setting of a less than 200 employee company in Hyannis.

“You see a lot of the good lessons we learned from Lucent throughout the DNA of this company,” he said.

Murphy’s time in the service also instilled a sense of a grander calling than simply climbing the corporate ladder and turning profits. “The selfish side of me looks for things that can really make an impact,” he said. “At some point in time, I’d like to see all video, voice and data run over Excel equipment.”

The reason for this may not be what you think.

“It’s about communication, and if people are communicating they probably aren’t fighting,” he said. “If we can have a hand in that, we can help stabilize the world.”

Through the Coast Guard, Murphy also learned a sense of civic duty and service to his country.

“It is everyone’s responsibility to give back to society in some way,” he said. “I see doing something like that in the future.”

Exactly what, he isn’t saying. But, he said, nonprofit work, or even a run at the political arena, is not out of the picture.

Vinit Nijhawan

Community

A passion to pay it forward

THE JOB: President, TiE Boston
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Founded Kinetic Computer Corp. and later sold its product line to Telxon (now Symbol Technologies) and its intellectual property to Qualcomm; At Payload Systems Inc. Nijhawan was part of the first U.S. organization to develop a commercial relationship with the former Soviet Union’s government space program; Founded or co-founded four startups, three were acquired

“You can tell from my background, I am all about entrepreneurship, and am very passionate about it.”

BY EFRAIN VISCAROLASAGA, Staff writer

Born in the relative warmth of Northern India, Vinit Nijhawan moved to Canada as a boy in what could be looked back on as the first step in a career that would not only span hemispheres, but atmospheres, as well.

An entrepreneur by trade, Nijhawan now finds himself helping other entrepreneurs in New England as president of TiE Boston, the local chapter of TiE, a nonprofit with a mission to nurture entrepreneurship.

TiE Boston is growing rapidly. The local group includes 85 charter members, 700 members and hosts nearly 60 events a year.

“Mentoring is the reason for TiE,” said Nijhawan. “We want to foster entrepreneurship. We want MIT graduates to be able to come to TiE and get mentored.”

Charter members provide the mentoring power, and the group boasts some considerable talent including Desh Deshpande, chairman of Sycamore Networks Inc. Nijhawan is working to bring the benefits of TiE Global to Boston via the global reach of TiE members.

“You can tell from my background, I am all about entrepreneurship, and am very passionate about it,” he said. “TiE is an organization that provides the grease to keep the entrepreneurial engine running.”

After getting his engineering degree at the University of Waterloo in Canada, Nijhawan went to Northern Telecom in Canada. Soon afterward, though, he moved to a smaller company, Ottawa-based space technology maker, Cal Corp. It was there he recognized his entrepreneurial passion — and grew the company from 33 to 400 employees.

Nijhawan met his future wife at a conference in 1987, and she, along with a budding entrepreneurial plan, precipitated his move to New England. While at Cal Corp., Nijhawan tapped associates Anthony Arrott, an MIT scientist, and Byron Lichtenberg, a scientist and astronaut, to form Payload Systems, which made space-flight instrumentation for space shuttles and the international space station.

The best-laid plans, however, cannot predict fate. Shortly after Nijhawan arrived in Boston, shuttle Challenger crashed, and the U.S. space program grounded to a halt.

But true entrepreneurs need to roll with the punches.

Payload eventually cut a deal with the Soviet Union to use its space station Mir to conduct biotech research, and became the first U.S. company to do so. The goal, he said, was to demonstrate the feasibility of Payload’s cell culture unit, a system for controlled biotech research. Payload conducted two flight missions before the Soviet Union broke up, though the system never reached commercialization.

In 1992, Nijhawan founded Kinetic Computer Corp., putting early personal computers in commercial vehicle fleets for companies like Pepsi. That company grew from a bootstrapped startup to a $10 million company and was later sold, in part to Telxon (later sold to Symbol Technologies) and in part to Qualcomm.

Nijhawan switched gears again and eventually spent some time at local VC firm Kodiak Ventures. Through that experience, he found networking startup Taral Networks. He joined as CEO in 2002 and led it through an acquisition of Schlumberger Messaging Solutions, a larger text messaging business, and the company became Airwide Solutions. He remains on the board of Airwide.

Sherri C. Oberg

Biotech

Greater than the green

THE JOB: Chief executive officer, Acusphere Inc.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Raised more than $100 million in venture capital; Generated more than $100 million in company’s initial public offering; Built the Watertown company from scratch to its 2005 level of 100 employees

“In biotech, you are always looking to raise money, because it takes so much to bring a product to market.”

BY DYKE HENDRICKSON, Senior staff writer

Many venture capitalists start their careers as entrepreneurs, and later move into the investment game. Sherri Oberg, however, began her career in venture. When the right opportunity appeared, she left the VC world to lead companies.

And it would be difficult to fault her game plan.

As the chief executive officer of Acusphere Inc., she raised close to $100 million in venture capital. Then in 2003, the firm raised more than $100 million in an initial public offering.

“When it came to raising money, it has definitely helped to have had experience on the VC side,” said Oberg, a native of Bryn Mawr, Pa. “I was aware of what investors were looking for, and what they need to hear. In biotech, you are always looking to raise money, because it takes so much to bring a product to market.”

Oberg attended Dartmouth College and its Amos Tuck School of Business Administration. During her senior year, she organized a job fair.

An executive from the Inco Ltd. venture fund was impressed by her organization skills, and she was offered a job at the firm’s New York office, where she spent her initial career years in the mid-’80s learning how to assess companies and invest money.

“Inco was an early investor in Genentech and Biogen, and they made a ton of money,” she said.

She later worked with the Aegis venture firm in Boston.

Her interest was in life science companies, but she realized that she had a yen to run them, not fund them.

In the early ’90s she served as a turnaround CEO for Neomorphics, a Boston-area biotech firm she managed until it was sold.

During this period she entered discussions with Robert Langer, the renowned inventor at MIT. Langer and his team had developed technology that was ripe for commercialization, and Oberg assumed the job of chief executive officer. The company became Acusphere, now based in Watertown.

Acusphere is a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops new drugs and improved formulations of existing drugs using its proprietary porous microparticle technology. Its three initial product candidates are designed to address cardiology, oncology and asthma.

Its lead product candidate is a cardiovascular drug in Phase III clinical development for the detection of coronary heart disease, one of the largest market targets in medicine.

Company officials say they could be filing their new drug application early next year.

But a life sciences CEO never sleeps when there is money to be generated, and in late September the company raised another $17 million through sale of common stock.

When she is not rounding up cash, Oberg says she spends much of her time with her family.

“I have children — a girl, 14, and a boy, 12 — and we are very active,” she said. “We ski, we travel, we do family things. It’s a great change of pace.”

Hilmi Ozguc

Networks

Running with the risk

THE JOB: Co-founder and CEO, Maven Networks Inc.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Helped bring the Lotus spreadsheet product line to Asia; Co-founded Narrative Communications Corp., which sold to @Home Networks for more than $100 million; Speaks four languages: English, German, Turkish and Japanese

“I wanted to start my own company as far back as college, but I wanted to work at a large company first.”

BY EFRAIN VISCAROLASAGA, Staff writer

Even as an undergraduate and graduate student at Boston University, Hilmi Ozguc wanted to be an entrepreneur. The creativity and flexibility of a small, lean company always appealed to him, but he felt he needed to experience the other side first — to learn as much about the business world, and the real world, as he could.

That path landed him near Osaka, Japan, after graduation, where he spent two years as a software architect and development manager for Mitsubishi Semiconductor’s R&D labs.

“I’ve always been entrepreneurial,” he said. “I wanted to start my own company as far back as college, but I wanted to work at a large company first.”

Well, he got it, and then some. After Mitsubishi, he went to Lotus Development Corp., which, at the time, was the biggest software company in that area. There, he worked on Lotus’ SmartSuite products and helped bring the company’s spreadsheet products to Asia and the Pacific Rim.

When IBM Corp. acquired Lotus in 1995, Ozguc sought to leave the big-company setting. “I was trained to see, at a very young age, the inner workings of a big conglomerate,” he said. “Despite their enormous resources, it’s amazing how slow they are.

At a small company, you can make decisions very quickly and then act on them quickly. You try something and get immediate feedback. If it doesn’t work, you can try a different direction.”

In 1995 he co-founded Narrative Communications Corp. in Waltham. At the time, the company was billed as an e-commerce multimedia marketing company and created advertising technologies and advertising delivery and reporting services for clients such as IBM, Intel Corp. and Ziff-Davis.

The company was a hit. The company eventually captured a 70 percent market share and grew its revenue 800 percent annually. After raising $13 million from Greylock Partners, Accel Partners and Carlyle Ventures, Narrative was acquired by the @Home Network in 1999 for more than $100 million.

With the fresh taste of startup success in his mouth, Ozguc went looking for his next venture — which is what really excites him, the chance to build a company and work with people passionate about the same thing.

“In a startup, you’re always running lean and mean,” he said. “It’s a little riskier because you’re a pioneer, and pioneers get arrows in their backs. Some people deal with that well, and some don’t. It’s challenging, but it’s exciting.”

In 2002, he began work with former colleagues from Lotus on what would become Maven Networks. The goal was to allow companies to build a new generation of broadband, he said, providing full-screen and movie quality video, with interactivity, over IP.

Despite starting during a down time in the market, Maven has now raised $15 million in venture capital, and by many accounts, including Ozguc’s, is ready to jump on the IP video market.

“It looks like we are on the cusp of something big again,” he said. “Luckily, we put in the time and investment in the company three years ago and are ready.”

Tracy Emerton Williams

Government

Rhode Island state of mind

THE JOB: Chief Information Officer, State of Rhode Island
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Responsible for merging 32 million criminal and traffic databases for Rhode Island Supreme Court; Doubled sales to $2 million at Sun Microsystems Inc. in first 18 months while responsible for New England region; Helped develop new global sales method for Computer Science Corp., a $2 billion firm with 32,000 employees at that time.

“In 2010 Rhode Island citizens should have access to all state information online.”

BY PATRICIA RESENDE, Special to Mass High Tech

Tracy Emerton Williams spends some of her spare time visiting baseball parks and attending historical re-enactments with her husband and two children.

And if she were to re-enact her most recent years in the business of IT, she would be dressed in certificates of armor from Bentley College, New Hampshire Technical School and Harvard University, and she would be armed in one hand with an autobiography of her success in IT and in the other hand a manual of battle tactics she has used along the way.

The battle she would fight: To bring the state of Rhode Island’s court system online.

Williams, 42, is a tech veteran with a resume that spans more than two decades and covers more than a dozen positions at nine technology firms and agencies.

She is now leading the state’s technology efforts as the new chief information officer appointed by Gov. Don Carcieri, and she has rolled up her sleeves and is hard at work.

“I put together a framework for where information technology is heading,” Williams said. “In 2010 Rhode Island citizens should have access to all state information online.”

Already there is an online tax-filing system, a “fast start” application on the state’s website for businesses to access the permits they need and register with the appropriate agencies in the state, as well as an online motor vehicle registration renewal process.

High on Williamsx’ list of things to do is the implementation of a centralized call center such as New York’s 311 system, which allows residents to call 311 to speak with someone to request information in 170 languages. Other active programs in the pipeline include an e-prescribing application allowing prescription data to go from doctor to pharmacy.

When Williams left her post as assistant state court administrator for judicial technology at the Rhode Island Supreme Court after four years there, she left with a long list of accomplishments.

Aside from being responsible for IT management and operations for the Rhode Island’s court system, which has a total of 720 employees in eight locations statewide, Williams also prepares and monitors a $4 million annual budget. Her accomplishments at the Judicial Tech Center included converting civil courts from a Wang system, adding a web-based criminal records search capability, and expanding videoconferencing to superior and district courts.

While at Computer Science Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., Williams moved her family to Dallas for six months while she and a team developed the PIONEER program, a global sales methodology.

“By the time I left, the entire 32,000 employees of the $2 billion firm were adopting the sales process globally,” she said.

When asked about accomplishments in which she takes the most pride, there’s one that sticks out.

Williams, while working for Xerox Corp. in 1986, created a database for a woman responsible for sorting 3,000 index cards by ZIP code. After a mailing, the woman would then sort them back alphabetically.

“This woman was so overwhelmed by the work I saved her that she just started crying.”

Elliot T. Williams

Finance

A tech torch to follow

THE JOB: President, Mirus Capital Advisors Inc.
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Managed first M&A deal at the age of 24; Founded Mirus’ IT services group in 1997; Handled major acquisitions including Edgewater Technology acquisition by StaffMark, DSP Software Engineering sale to Tellabs; President of 850-member Boston Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth

“A growing number of industries are utilizing the ubiquity of the Internet and process technology to eliminate costs, so we are seeing a lot of activity in those areas.”

BY PATRICIA RESENDE, Special to Mass High Tech

There was no hesitation when then-Babson College student Elliot Williams had an opportunity to work at his professor’s company, RCW Mirus, part-time as an unpaid intern.

“It was the early ’90s and it was a long line to work for free,” Williams said.

RCW, a mergers and acquisitions consultancy, at the time was focused on the VC community. The strategy was to work with venture capital firms and allow them to see the RCW process and get leads for potential M&A business.

Williams was studying business administration at Babson where he ultimately would leave with a bachelor’s degree in the field.

“One of the early companies I worked on was Channel Computing, backed by Charles River Ventures,” he said. “It was that high tech connection that led me and the firm to generally focus in other areas to use the repeatability of my experience.”

Seeing the need to work with technology businesses, Williams and a few other employees decided to build vertical market expertise and formed an IT services practice, which eventually became 40 percent of RCW’s total business. “At 24, I went to Pennsylvania and handled my own transaction,” Williams said. “I parlayed that and landed my own (technology clientele), which started to become a kernel for Mirus’ growth.”

It has been more than a decade since he first walked in the door at RCW, now Mirus Capital Advisors Inc., and Williams has not looked back. Williams climbed the corporate ladder from intern to managing director in 1996 and to president in 2000.

Today, Mirus’ focus is completely in the areas of software, IT and technology-enabled services.

Now 34, Williams is still running the show at the firm he helped grow.

“A growing number of industries are utilizing the ubiquity of the Internet and process technology to eliminate costs, so we are seeing a lot of activity in those areas.”

Add in Sarbanes-Oxley and the lack of an IPO market, and you have a great recipe for a successful mergers and acquisitions market.

One deal near and dear to Williams’ heart is the deal between Edgewater Technology and Arkansas-based StaffMark Inc. “There is such a wonderful atmosphere at that company, and that is why it stands out for me,” Williams said. “They wanted to be in charge of their own destiny after the acquisition — which is very rare.

As a result, Edgewater was left an independent division empowered to grow. StaffMark ultimately sold its assets before the purchase, which helped Edgewater become a public company. “Not only did we help them sell their business, we’ve given them the solution they wanted and now they are over $55 million in revenue,” said Williams.

Williams credits his business savvy to his family’s business Power Conversion Systems Inc., which was at one time the largest independent reseller and integrator of power filtration and supply systems.

“That was what helped me understand how these IT services companies worked,” Williams said. “We did about $15 million at the peak in revenue and Wang was our largest client. … I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but 10 years ago I started to realize how valuable that experience was for me.”

Jack M. Wilson

Education

The technologists’ minuteman

THE JOB: President, University of Massachusetts
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Served as dean and interim provost at Rensselaer Polytech. Institute; Founded LearnLinc Corp. in 1993 and brought it public through a triple reverse merger, creating Mentergy Corp.; Founding entrepreneur of UMassOnline; Named president of the University of Massachusetts in March 2004

“I was in school at a time when the world was really focused on some of the things coming out of physics. We were excited about what science and physics could do.”

BY RODNEY BROWN, Staff writer

Jack Wilson is, in his own words, trying “to change the world.”

He certainly has changed the world of online learning, and it is for that effort and his work to turn the University of Massachusetts system into a world-class research entity that he is being named the 2005 Mass High Tech All-Star for Education.

That drive to affect the world and a love of higher education was born during the heady days of the Cold War and the Space Race.

“I was in school at a time when the world was really focused on some of the things coming out of physics,” Wilson said. “We were excited about what science and physics could do.”

Wilson parlayed a bachelor’s degree from Thiel College in 1967 into a master’s degree (1970) and a doctorate (1972) in physics from Kent State University.

That led to Wilson becoming a professor, then a dean and interim provost at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Like many a science professor, Wilson was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. In 1993 he founded LearnLinc Corp., serving as chief executive officer and chairman.

“I had one student working with me on one of these projects, and he came to me and said he really wanted to start his own company. We recruited another student and started the company,” Wilson said.

LearnLinc went through three rounds of venture capital and grew into a substantial company. Wilson enlisted the help of industry veteran Paul Severino. “We looked at the possibility of directly going public,” Wilson said. Instead, Wilson worked with Gilat Communications and Allen Communications to bring LearnLinc into a triple reverse merger that became the publicly traded Mentergy Corp.

After the merger, he went back to RPI, where he was presented an opportunity to start UmassOnline. “I thought, ‘Hmm, this really sounds interesting,’” he said.

Part of the attraction was the blending of Wilson’s two great interests: “technological entrepreneurship and how tech changes people lives, and the higher education system.”

According to Wilson, UMassOnline was growing at 100 percent per year in its early years, and has since scaled ‘down’ to 30 percent growth per year now. “In the last year, we served around 17,500 students. If this were a campus, this would be our second-largest campus,” Wilson said.

When embattled former UMass president William Bulger announced he was stepping down, Wilson was named to the post on an interim basis. Six months later, in March 2004, Wilson became the official president of the University of Massachusetts system.

He had his work cut out for him. Just before taking the helm, the state cut funding for UMass by about $150 million per year.

Last year the system spent about $2 billion, with the state providing the $408 million, and the university raising $1.6 billion in other revenues. It brought in $350 million in externally funded research. Wilson has aspirations to grow that to $600 million within about five years.

And then there are the funds coming from tech transfer and licensing, an area dear to Wilson’s heart. Under Wilson’s tenure, the UMass systems has become the 14th most productive school in the United States for commercialization of its intellectual property.