Technology >> CEO Interviews >> February 17, 2003

Lorne Cooper – Progress Software Corporation (prgs)

NORMAN 'BUD' ROBERTSON is Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer of Progress Software Corporation. Mr. Robertson is responsible for all financial operations and investor relations activities for the company, as well as administrative functions, including human resources, legal, production, distribution and facilities. Mr. Robertson joined Progress Software in May 1996. For over 25 years, he has managed the financial direction of various public and private technology companies including M/A-COM, Digital Equipment Corporation and General Motors. Mr. Robertson holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master's degree in Management from Boston University. Profile
LORNE COOPER is President of PeerDirect. An accomplished entrepreneur, he comes to PeerDirect from his position as President of NuSphere Corporation, a start-up subsidiary of Progress Software Corporation that delivers an Internet application platform based on open source components, providing an integrated foundation that allows companies to deploy reliable, cost-effective, enterprise-class applications. Prior to joining NuSphere, he founded Sente, Inc., a software company that provided high-end software to designers of integrated circuits, particularly Intel, Motorola, Toshiba, NEC, Nortel and Ericsson. As President and CEO, Mr. Cooper ran Sente successfully for six years, culminating in the sale of the company. Before founding Sente, he was with Viewlogic Systems, where he served as Senior Vice President of Engineering and Product Marketing, and was part of the management team that brought the company to IPO and revenues of over $100 million. During his nine years at Viewlogic he managed support, training, product marketing, consulting and development. Mr. Cooper holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Profile
TWST: Could we start off with a brief history and a quick

overview of Progress Software?

Mr. Robertson: Progress Software was founded in 1981. It went

public in 1991. It's on the NASDAQ. It's