Technology >> CEO Interviews >> November 13, 2000
ROGER KOENIG is the co-Founder and CEO of Carrier Access Corporation.
Mr. Koenig's involvement in the communications industry began in 1978
when he joined ROLM Corporation as a design engineer. From 1978 to 1984,
Mr. Koenig held a number of engineering and engineering management
positions with ROLM, culminating in the position of Section Manager of
PBX development for ROLM Europe. When IBM acquired ROLM in November of
1984, he assumed responsibility for electronics and hardware development
for IBM Europe's PBX line. In 1987 Mr. Koenig became an Independent
Consultant, doing market research and strategic product planning in
ISDN, frame relay, and international marketing for clients including
Dialogic, Bellcore and NET. Koenig Communications was formed as a VAR in
1989, offering packaged solutions of T1 voice and data equipment that
made it possible for answering and paging services to add geographically
distributed customers, without additional calling or personnel. In 1992
Mr. Koenig moved the business from San Jose, California to Boulder,
Colorado, reforming as Carrier Access Corporation, to develop and
manufacture telecommunications equipment that addressed the needs
learned as a wide-area networking VAR. The company's first product, the
Access Bank I, dramatically reduced equipment size and installation time
and, with a price tag of about half that of other products, created a
new playing field for mass-market T1 service termination. At the core of
Mr. Koenig's product development philosophy is an evolutionary process,
through which products are continually redesigned to incorporate new
customer values at lower costs. This process has become a way of life at
Carrier Access and is a key factor in the company's ability to gain
market share and maintain its position as an industry leader. Carrier
Access continues to bring the next generation of broadband service
access solutions to meet the management and economic needs of wide-scale
carrier deployments. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from
Michigan State University and an MS in Engineering Management from
Stanford University. Mr. Koenig has been recognized for his
contributions to the telecommunications industry with a number of
awards, including the Esprit Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1998, the
Deloitte & Touche Fast 500, and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
award in 1999. Profile
Corporation.
Mr. Koenig: Carrier Access evolved from a systems integration company
that Nancy Pierce and I started in 1992. We saw
