A Brief History of Mark

I was born in Concord, MA in 1957. My mother was a nurse, social worker and psychological counselor. My father worked for IBM as a field engineer, trainer, systems engineer, marketing representative, and ended his long and distinguished career as a financial and strategic planner at IBM’s headquarters. We were a fairly typical middle class family, but my parents always made a special effort to expose my two sisters and me to the wider world by bringing international students into our home and through travel throughout the United States and one trip to Europe. We moved from Massachusetts to upstate NY (5 years) to the Chicago area (8 years) and then to Wilton, Connecticut where I attended Wilton High School.

I attended Cornell University with the goal of understanding nuclear physics well enough to make a contribution to creating a clean, sustainable nuclear fusion energy source to replace our increasing dependence on foreign oil. My first two years focused heavily on an engineering physics curriculum until I realized that the problems associated with creating a sustainable fusion reactor were unlikely to be solved in the next twenty or thirty years. As a result, I switched my major to electrical engineering with a focus on digital electronics and graduated with a BSEE degree in 1979.

After Cornell, I joined Intel and held a number of sales, marketing and management positions over 10 years including technical sales engineer, field sales engineer with a focus on account development and then major account territories, and finally District Manager where I was responsible for Intel’s major accounts in the Northeast.

During my time at Intel, I fulfilled a long-time dream and became an instrument rated aircraft pilot and aircraft owner and on occasion found the opportunity to fly for business as well as for pleasure.

In 1989 I heard the siren call to move from the hardware business to the software business and followed a group of ex-Intel employees into the electronic design automation business to manage the Eastern Region for EDA Systems. Within 6 months, our largest customer, Digital Equipment Corporation, felt EDA Systems was strategic enough to their future that they acquired us.

In 1990, I went back into the startup software business, joining Object Design, an Object-Oriented Database company that became the fastest growing company in North America, winning the Inc. 500 #1 ranking for four year revenue growth in 1994. I held a number of positions at Object Design over 7 years where I established and directed sales operations in North America, Europe and Asia and finally was responsible for leading our Channels and Internet organizations and our relationships with Microsoft, Netscape, Sun and IBM. Object Design executed a successful IPO during my tenure and was subsequently acquired by Progress Software.

After Object Design, I decided to leverage my avocation as a pilot along with my vocational experience in the hardware and software industries to join Avidyne, a high tech startup in aerospace sector. We’ve had a lot of success introducing category changing, disruptive and trendsetting products in this industry. Currently I’m Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Avidyne as well as a husband, father of two children, and a pilot.

I’m passionately interested in the high-growth, high-tech solutions required to create a sustainable future for our planet and our children. This blog will discuss the personal, local and global initiatives required to make the transition to a sustainable future. My comments will be reflective of my background and training as a sales and marketing entrepreneur, as an engineer, as well as my international experience in launching high growth products into new markets.

We’re at a critical transition point for creating a sustainable future. I’m looking forward to collaborating with you to achieve that goal.