NetScheme Solutions appoints Neil Ferris chairman & CEO

Business Wire, Oct 9, 1996

MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 9, 1996--

CEO Ferris, new V.P. of sales Michael Sutkowski join management

team as company ramps up production, channel development and

marketing phases

NetScheme Solutions Inc. today announced the appointment of Cornelius A. (Neil) Ferris as chairman and chief executive officer.

Ferris is a 25-year industry veteran with a proven track record of success with major fast-growth high technology firms, including Apollo Computer, Data General and Fluent Inc. At the same time, NetScheme also announced the naming of Michael Sutkowski as vice president of sales.

A co-founder of Apollo Computer and co-founder and CEO of Fluent Inc., Ferris most recently was the vice president of advanced services for Novell Inc. which acquired Fluent Inc., a multimedia software company. Prior to Novell, he was vice president of Apollo Computer and a member of the founding team which grew the company from zero revenues to over $500 million in five years. Joining Data General shortly after it was founded, Ferris held numerous senior management positions for more than 10 years.

"With its new product, NetScheme is dramatically changing the way that corporate end-users access data from corporate databases," said David R. Hathaway, general partner at Venrock Associates, and a member of NetScheme's Board of Directors. "NetScheme has the only technology that offers IS departments an easy way to plug their databases into the Intranets they're building. Under Neil's proven leadership, NetScheme will drive this innovative new technology far into the mainstream market." Venrock, one of the firms investing in NetScheme, is the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, active in venture investing for 60 years. Venrock Associates concentrates on early-stage high technology investments in information technology and communications and in health care services and life sciences.

"NetScheme today is poised for meteoric growth," said Ferris.

"I joined the company because NetScheme's vision of the Intranet data access market is at least a year ahead of the industry. Today, users are demanding the instant gratification of their Web browser, and IS managers have to deliver--while keeping corporate data safe and secure. For most companies, NetScheme's live data access tool is the only viable option."

Ferris holds B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from Northeastern University. He is currently a member of the Clinical Management Board at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, where he is Chair of the Technology subcommittee.

New V.P. of Sales to Focus on Channel Development

NetScheme also announced the appointment of Michael Sutkowski as vice president of sales. A 21-year sales veteran in the industry with extensive indirect sales channel experience, Sutkowski joins the company from VMARK Software. At VMARK, he held a number of increasingly senior sales positions since 1986, including vice president of U.S. sales, vice president of OEM and vendor sales, and vice president of the western region. At VMARK he was instrumental in growing the company's sales channels from a handful of value-added resellers in the mid-1980s to its current 435 vertical solution VARs and 20 OEMs.

"I am very pleased to welcome Mike Sutkowski to the NetScheme management team," said Ferris. "His depth and breadth of experience will help enable us to rapidly develop and expand our VAR, OEM and channel partner relationships, so that many more companies and their end users can gain the unique benefits of our InterMart Toolkit solution."

Prior to VMARK, Sutkowski held senior sales positions at Burroughs Corp., Mastercare Inc. and Software Management Systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the State University of New York at Oswego.

Rounding Out the Management Team

Ferris and Sutkowski join the founding management team of NetScheme, which includes three former senior Lotus Development Corp. alumni: Carl J. Young, NetScheme president and chief technology officer; Dr. Robert V. Rubin, vice president of research and development; and Julie McNamara, vice president of marketing.

With more than 25 years of experience in the design and implementation of commercial software, Young's deep technical background includes expertise in operating systems, database management systems, third- and fourth-generation languages and spreadsheets. Prior to NetScheme, he spent seven years at Lotus Development Corp., in a series of key technical positions, including chief architect of the Spreadsheet Software Division and system architect of 1-2-3. He was instrumental in Lotus' launch of DataLens, Lotus' API for connecting applications to relational databases.

Dr. Rubin brings a proven track record of planning, scheduling and managing delivery of rapid application development tools. While at Lotus, he was chief architect for cross-application scripting. He brought three innovative, high-quality software products to market in less than two years: LotusScript, Notes ViP and SmartCenter. Before joining Lotus, he architected and managed the development of the Visual Programmer's Workbench at GTE Laboratories and was a senior software engineer at Digital Equipment Corp.