About
the Panel
George
Klaus - CEO of Epicor
L. George Klaus, with over 25 years of experience in the high
technology industry, was named chief executive officer and
president of Epicor Software Corporation in February 1996.
In September 1996, Klaus took on the added role of chairman
of the board.
Klaus achieved industry prominence when he restored Frame
Technology to consistent profitability through 1995. He has
a history of restoring shareholder confidence and rebuilding
corporate stability for high technology companies, including
Cadence Design Systems/VALID and Hughes LAN Systems.
During his tenure at Frame Technology, a leading provider
of industry-leading tools for authoring, managing and distributing
business-critical documents, Klaus returned the company to
sound business performance and Wall Street ratings of "Strong
Buy/Aggressive Growth" by leading investment firms. Klaus
also directed company negotiations with Adobe Systems for
a strategic acquisition beneficial to customers, employees
and shareholders.
Previously Klaus was chief operating officer of Cadence Design
Systems and president and chief operating officer at VALID.
His background also included seven years with Hughes LAN Systems
where he served as chief executive officer and president.
Previous executive experience includes three years with Amdahl
Corporation and thirteen years with Control Data Corporation.
Klaus holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from
California State University and did graduate work in math
and business at UCLA. He currently serves on the Board of
Directors for FileNet Corporation (NASDAQ: FILE), Blaze Software,
Inc., Broadview Capital Partners Board of Advisors and the
University California, Irvine - Information & Computer
Science CEO Advisory Board.
Thomas
E. Rowley, Chief Executive Officer, Preventsys
With 35
years of experience, Tom Rowley is an expert entrepreneur
who specializes in leading early-stage technology companies
to establish and develop new markets. His proven engineering
management and marketing expertise has enabled him to successfully
found and grow nine venture-funded companies during his career.
As CEO of Preventsys, Tom is responsible for shaping and driving
all areas of management, including sales, marketing, professional
services, product development and business strategy.
Tom brings
widely varied domain experience to the position - most recently
specializing in security technologies - as well as broad market
experience, having developing OEM, direct sales and VAR/distributor
networks in different industries. Technically adept, he excels
at understanding new technologies and positioning them for
maximum market impact. With extensive access to capital, he
has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from top-tier investors
such as Bessemer, Morgan Stanley, Accel Partners, Goldman
Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Apax Partners, and U.S.
Venture Partners.
Before
joining Preventsys, Tom co-founded Counterpane Internet Security,
Inc, the world's largest independent managed network security
services firm. As CEO and Chairman of Counterpane, Tom conceived
the company's business plan, raised over $90 million in venture
capital funding and recruited a skilled management team.
Tom also
founded Veridicom, Inc., a spin-off of Lucent Technology's
Bell Labs. As president, he commercialized a breakthrough
fingerprint identification sensor, raised more than $11 million
in venture funding, recruited Veridicom's key personnel, and
transformed laboratory prototypes into high-quality production
products. At National Semiconductor, Tom spearheaded the development
of secure cryptographic semiconductor products for the information
security and electronic commerce industries, establishing
alliances with Microsoft, RSA Security, Verisign and Visa.
In 1982,
Tom joined Centigram Corp. as chief operating officer and
was later promoted to president. During his four year tenure,
he was responsible for refocusing the company from a speech
research technology boutique to a major supplier in the voice
messaging industry and successfully took the organization
public in 1987.
Named
a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2002,
Tom Rowley holds two patents with the U.S. Patent Office.
He has lectured for business schools at Stanford University,
University of California at Berkeley and Santa Clara University
on how to build a venture capital backed company. Tom has
also spoken on various security topics at numerous industry
events and conferences, including the Gartner IT Security
Summit, RSA and NetWorld+Interop.
Nicolaas
Vlok, CEO of Vision Solutions
Nicolaas Vlok's entrepreneurial career began at age 14 when
he started selling computer hardware. At the age of 21, while
studying engineering at the University of Pretoria in South
Africa, he started TST, a computer hardware and network integration
company. TST thrived off Vlok's unique mix of business acumen
and technical skills. His passion and knowledge for IT were
the building blocks of his visionary thinking. In the next
three years, before going public, the company had zero gearing,
was cash flow positive and returned a profit every year.
Vlok rebranded
the business IDION and in August 1998 listed IDION Technology
Holdings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Financial Mail
rated IDION as the best IT listing of 1998. At age 25, Vlok
was the youngest CEO of a listed company in South Africa.
As IDION
continued to grow, Vlok's focus shifted to solutions and services.
He set his sight on turning the company into an international
software developer that could meet the growing needs for information
availability through world-class software and services.
Through
four strategic acquisitions, Vlok started building IDION into
a proprietary software solutions business. This then marked
an important leap into the international arena that lead to
IDION's acquisition of US-based Vision Solutions, Inc. Since
the acquisition, Vlok has led Vision Solutions to become a
force in the industry providing information availability management
solutions to customers around the world.
Jeff
Margolis, Chairman & CEO of The Trizetto Group, Inc.
Widely
recognized as a visionary in the application of innovative
technology to the complex and rapidly changing healthcare
industry, Jeff Margolis founded The TriZetto Group, Inc. in
1997. He has more than 15 years of experience architecting
and managing information technology and services for some
of the nation’s largest and most innovative healthcare
organizations. He is the former senior vice president and
chief information officer of FHP International Corp., a $4
billion healthcare company that operated health plans, multi-specialty
physician clinics and hospitals, serving more than 2 million
members and patients. Margolis was named an “up and comer”
by Modern Healthcare magazine and is the former chairman of
the Managed Care Executive Group. In 2002, he was named Ernst
& Young's Technology Entrepreneur of the Year for Orange
County, California. A certified public accountant, Margolis
holds certificates in Colorado and Illinois. He received his
bachelor’s degree with high honors in business administration/
management information systems from the University of Illinois.
Richard Reisman, Publisher and CEO of Orange County Business
Journal
Mr. Reisman
joined the Business Journal in September 1990. Since that
time, the publication's acceptance by the business community
has been dramatic. Paid circulation has grown five-fold.
Prior
to arriving at the Business Journal, Reisman was director
of marketing for the Orange County edition of The Los Angeles
Times. Earlier in his career, Reisman practiced law in San
Francisco and Washington, D.C. While in private practice in
Washington, Reisman served as Special Counsel to the House
Ethics Committee.
Reisman
holds an M.B.A. from UCLA, where he was awarded the R.C. Baker
Foundation Fellowship, and a law degree from George Washington
University, where he graduated with honors. He currently serves
as membership chair of the California Coast chapter of YPO
and is listed in “Who’s Who in America.”
