Database Industry Veterans Don Haderle, Bruce Armstrong and Polly Sumner Join Vertica's All-Star Team of Advisors
'Father of DB2' and successful software industry veterans to provide insight on product development, market dynamics and future of column-oriented databases
ANDOVER, Mass., Oct. 9 -- Vertica Systems today added three database, IT and software business industry experts to its leadership team when it appointed industry gurus Don Haderle, Bruce Armstrong and Polly Sumner to its team of advisors.
Today's announcement is a harbinger of Vertica's future growth strategy to expand into new markets while helping companies of every size capitalize on the benefits of column-oriented databases. Haderle, Armstrong and Sumner will join a strong leadership team featuring: newly announced CEO Ralph Breslauer (see today's press release at (www.vertica.com/company/news_and_events); column-oriented database pioneer Mike Stonebraker; former senior vice president of Oracle's server product division Jerry Held; software industry veteran Andy Palmer; and special advisor and former Oracle COO and president Ray Lane.
Additional database industry braintrust
Known as "the father of DB2," Haderle developed IBM's pioneering relational database management system as its founding architect in the 1970s. He rose through the ranks from software developer to vice president and CTO of IBM's $4 billion information management segment. Haderle secured more than 50 patents and disclosures across all areas of database management while at IBM, and was appointed an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow for his contributions to database technology.
Armstrong began his career at data warehousing company Teradata Corporation, where, after the company was acquired by AT&T / NCR, he led its $500 million enterprise solutions division. Most recently, Armstrong served as president and CEO of CRM application provider Knova Software, and has also guided CRM companies Kanisa and Broadbase Software to growth and acquisition. Previously, he ran Sybase's $700 million enterprise database management business as vice president and general manager.
Sumner, a 30-year software industry veteran, is currently a consultant for Warburg Pincus working with both new and existing portfolio companies. She has had operating and advisory roles at Telcordia, Cassatt, Systinet (now part of HP), Fortent, Wall Street Systems and Cranite. Prior to Warburg, Sumner was CEO of analytic software provider Alphablox, which was purchased by IBM. During an 11-year tenure at Oracle Corporation, she ran the OEM group, the Department of Defense Group and the Oracle Business Alliances Program and served as senior vice president of the Telecommunications Industry Group.
Haderle, Armstrong and Sumner join Vertica's already strong advisory and leadership team, a directory of the industry's most knowledgeable technology and business luminaries, including:
-- Ray Lane, Vertica special advisor and managing partner at venture
capital firm Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers. Previously, Lane helped
Oracle Corporation grow from $1 billion to $10 billion in revenues as
president and chief operating officer;
-- Dr. David DeWitt, Vertica advisor and professor of computer sciences at
University of Wisconsin. DeWitt developed the first relational database
system benchmark in the early 1980s and has penned more than 100
technical publications about database management;
-- Dr. Jerry Held, chairman of the Vertica board of directors and CEO of
the Held Consulting Group. Previously, Held led Oracle Corporation's
server product division; managed the initial development of Tandem's
NonStop SQL database and led the first implementation of Ingres;
-- Dr. Michael Stonebraker, Vertica co-founder and chief technology
officer. Stonebraker pioneered Ingres, Postgres and column-oriented
databases as well as launched five successful venture-backed startup
companies.
The advisory team provides Vertica's management and board of directors critical input on product development, future database technology trends, and marketing strategies. Advisors will also contribute to the company's blog The Database Column, which is a valuable resource for database architects and administrators, CIOs and other IT professionals looking for expert insight and opinion about database evolution and emerging technologies. To subscribe to The Database Column RSS feed, visit: www.databasecolumn.com/atom.xml.
"The database industry is undergoing significant change as companies realize they need a different approach for managing huge volumes of data while enabling fast, complex queries," said Vertica CEO Ralph Breslauer. "Don, Bruce and Polly will contribute immensely to our collective depth of knowledge helping us strategize product development and succeed in this ever-changing climate."
About Vertica
Vertica Systems is the market innovator for affordable, high-performance database management systems. Co-founded by database research and technology pioneer Dr. Michael Stonebraker and startup veteran Andy Palmer, Vertica has developed blindingly fast database technology for storing and querying very large databases using industry-standard hardware. With its unmatched scalability, flexibility and ease of use, Vertica's solution will bring corporate database architectures into the 21st century. Vertica is headquartered in Andover, Mass. and is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Highland Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and New Enterprise Associates. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.vertica.com.
Vertica Systems
