Technology >> CEO Interviews >> October 25, 2000
ROBERT A. COOK is President and CEO of Astracon, Inc., headquartered in
Denver, CO, which develops and markets the Connection Manager family of
products to the telecommunications and information services industries.
Astracon was spun off from CiTR, Pty. Ltd. and venture financed in 1998.
Prior to the formation of Astracon, Mr. Cook held leadership roles
within CiTR, a company which builds advanced technology software for
delivering and managing information and communications services, since
its formation in 1986. Most recently, he was President of CiTR, Inc.,
the division which services the North American market. CiTR now has a
reputation for high-quality software for network and services
management. From 1994 to early 1998, Mr. Cook was the Managing Director
and CEO of CiTR Pty. Ltd., the Australian parent of CiTR, Inc.,
executing the same business on a worldwide basis. During this time, Mr.
Cook developed strong commercial relationships with Telecom Australia,
Unisys, NEC, Digital and Hewlett-Packard. Also, under his leadership,
CiTR achieved ISO9001 certification. He was appointed as the Foundation
Director of the Center for Information Technology Research (CiTR) at the
University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia, in 1986. Mr. Cook has
also been a driving force behind Telstra Research Laboratories Center of
Expertise in Distributed Information Systems, and two Cooperative
Research Centers (CRC), in Distributed Systems Technology and Research
Data Networks. In addition to his position at CiTR, he has acted as
Chief Executive Officer for the CRC for Distributed Systems Technology
for its first 18 months of operations. Mr. Cook has had considerable
experience in consulting to government about the internal organization
of their information services policy and operations groups, and in
strategic planning for large organizations. Before returning to
Queensland to head up CiTR, he was working at the Institute for Systems
Science (ISS) at the National University of Singapore for five years. At
ISS, Mr. Cook was employed to transfer expertise in implementing
information technology to Singapore's industry. He led teaching and
consultancy operations in database systems and office information
systems, and was responsible for the establishment of ISS's own
sophisticated office technology. He consulted to a number of large
public sector corporations including the Housing Development Board and
the Jurong Town Corporation. He has a background in computer operating
systems and database management from working in engineering and
management positions at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia and
the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia. Mr. Cook received
his Bachelor's degree in Mathematics in 1968, graduating with honors
from Cambridge University, United Kingdom. He also received a
Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science in 1969 and a Master's degree
in Mathematics in 1972 from Cambridge University. Profile
its history, development, markets and your view of the firm's future
potential.
Mr. Cook: The company is almost two
