Friday, December 19, 2008

The Mover

Eric Sandman applies engineering, finance and marketing as Veroxity CEO

By Amy Castor, Special to Mass High Tech

Eric Sandman calls himself a “corporate triathlete.” He started off as an engineer, but later veered into finance and marketing. The combination served him well, taking his career along a path of nuclear subs, alternative energy and utility companies.

Most recently, it’s landed him the position of CEO at Veroxity Holdings Inc., a fiber-optics network provider in Bedford.

Sandman is a native of Lincoln, Maine, where his father worked as a chemical engineer at the local paper mill. When it came time for college, Sandman headed to the University of Maine, where he majored in electrical engineering because, “If you were good at math and science, the guidance counselors really didn’t let you know there were any options.”

One of Sandman’s first jobs was as a reactor control systems engineer at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where they overhaul nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy. What sounded exciting at first, wound up being staid and predictable because that’s what you want when working around nuclear reactors — no surprises.

At that point, Sandman started to question how much he wanted to be an engineer. “I thought I should hit a reset button,” he said. That’s when he recalled his father saying, “Finance people don’t know anything about making paper.” 

That led Sandman to wonder if engineers knew enough about business, so he enrolled in Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University to earn an MBA with a concentration in finance. 

His next stop was Washington, D.C., where he ended up working for World Bank Group, venturing to Sri Lanka and the Philippines looking for ways to bring electricity to remote areas. When he met his future wife, he opted for a job with less travel. 

That decision landed him back in New England, where he took a job with Boston Edison researching whether it made sense for the utility to become a competitive energy provider. Three years later, he switched to Northeast Utilities evaluating merger and acquisition opportunities before joining Neon Communications Group Inc., where he stayed seven years, eventually becoming CFO.

“When we sold Neon, I took the winter off to enjoy time off with my family,” said Sandman, who spent some of that time on the slopes. “In June, I joined Veroxity, a business similar to Neon.”

Veroxity initially hired Sandman as CFO, but with a round of funding lined up, the startup needed an experienced helmsman to guide it through a significant growth phase.

Amy Castor is a freelance writer in Amherst.