Technology >> CEO Interviews >> January 31, 2000
MITCHELL E. KERTZMAN is President and Chief Executive Officer and serves
on the Board of Directors. Before joining Liberate, Mr. Kertzman was
Chairman of the Board of Sybase, Inc., which is one of the 10 largest
independent software companies in the world. Mr. Kertzman was Founder
and CEO of Powersoft, a provider of enterprise application development
and design tools, which merged with Sybase in February 1995. A former
programmer, Mr. Kertzman founded Computer Solutions in 1974, a software
company specializing in MRP applications. In the late 1980s Mr. Kertzman
acted on the opportunity presented by the new operating environment of
Microsoft Windows. Predicting that Windows would change application
development radically, he initiated a project to produce development
tools for client/server applications. In 1991, Computer Solutions
released its flagship client/server application development tool,
PowerBuilder. Renamed Powersoft Corporation in 1993, the company
executed one of the most successful IPOs of the year. Two years later,
Powersoft merged with Sybase, Inc. in what was then the largest merger
in the history of the software industry. Mr. Kertzman is currently a
director of CNET, as well as of three privately held companies '
Interconnect Systems, Inc., Chordiant Software, Inc., and Extensity,
Inc. He is also a Director of the industry-related public policy and
political action organization, Technology Network. Mr. Kertzman served
as President of the Massachusetts Software Council from 1994 to 1996 and
was the 1990 Chairman of the Board of the American Electronics
Association. Mr. Kertzman has been recognized by his peers as a luminary
in technology and as a contributor to the larger world in which he
lives. In 1993, he was a recipient of Inc. Magazine and Ernst & Young's
New England Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He received the 1993
Distinguished Achievement Award from the technology unit of New England
B'nai B'rith. Mr. Kertzman is Founder and former Chairman of the
Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC), a think tank
focused on issues related to the standard of living and quality of life
of America's middle class. Mr. Kertzman served on the New York State
Commission on Industrial Competitiveness and chaired its task force on
industrial policy. Mr. Kertzman was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of
Humane Letters from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Profile
on the company? Then describe what you see as your business, what you
see as your company today.
Mr. Kertzman: The
