Summit Associates Personnel

Patty Burke

Areas of expertise

• Interim marketing management
• Positioning & Branding; Market segmentation and penetration plans, Product launch

Experience

• Patty held VP-level positions for more than fifteen years with Silicon Valley companies, providing hands-on leadership in product marketing, sales and business development strategies, corporate positioning and branding As the first VP Marketing at start-up Ramp Networks in 1996, she was responsible for marketing and sales strategies, creating the small business Internet router category and positioning Ramp as the leading player and driving the strategy for Ramp's '99 IPO (Ramp was acquired by Nokia in 2000). Previously, Patty was VP Marketing for UK-based Madge Networks, a pioneer in LAN and ATM networking equipment, repositioning the company for its '93 IPO and managing a marketing team of more than 40 worldwide. Prior to that she was VP Marketing at security leader Symantec, managing all aspects of corporate, product, channel and promotional marketing. With Symantec, her first position was Director of Product Marketing where she led product marketing for the PC and Mac utilities, driving 5X growth in anti-virus category revenues. In the late '80s, Patty was VP of the Networking/Telecom practice at the technology marketing consulting firm, Regis McKenna Inc. Clients included PacBell, Motorola Cellular, ROLM, Novell and 3Com

Clients

• Patty is a recognized expert in go-to-market strategies for both emerging and established companies. For example, Patty provides consulting services to the portfolio companies of leading venture capital firms Sevin Rosen Funds and El Dorado Ventures

Other Activities

• Patty has served as a Marketing Mentor for the CalTech Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program and is on the advisory board of several privately-held companies

Education

• B.A., University of Texas

Don Flanagan

Areas of expertise

• Marketing Communications, especially for Networking, Information Security, Medical Technology, and Telecom companies

Experience

• Don has twenty-five years experience in high-tech marketing and marketing communications, including seven years with Network Systems, where he was in charge of communications planning, PR, advertising, trade shows, and collateral. In addition, he represented Network Systems on the board of InfoTest, a consortium of leading technology companies, universities, and federal agencies. He was also VP of marketing for Bytex Corporation, a network security spinoff from StorageTek, and a copywriter at Periscope, a Minneapolis marketing agency. He began his career with Control Data

Clients

• Clients have included ADC Telecommunications, Advanced Technologies Integration, Boston Scientific, Cox Business Services, Digi International, Great Plains Software, Qwest, Roche Diagnostics, and United Health

Other Activities

• Don has taught writing courses for the University of St. Thomas MBA program, and he has conducted seminars on effective writing for both PRSA and IABC

Education

Ralph Lieberman

Areas of expertise

• Telecommunications, Technology Markets, Financial Services
• Strategic Positioning, Marketing Strategy, Organizational Improvement & Executive Coaching

Experience

• Fifteen years of technology marketing and strategy consulting, earlier with the Silicon Valley-based consulting firm The McKenna Group, and now with the premier European strategy consultants OC&C and as an independent consultant. Have worked with technology-based companies to develop and implement business strategies, build effective sales processes and approaches, assess new market opportunities, establish partner programs, position and launch new products and services, and enhance organizational capabilities
• Earlier management consulting with CSC Index and Monitor Company. Prior to that, served in management positions at a technology subsidiary of Kemper Financial Services

Clients

• Client work includes projects with telecommunications equipment vendors & service providers, telco software vendors, networking companies, computer hardware - as well as solution providers in financial services, healthcare, chemicals and nuclear industries. Also work with private equity firms performing due diligence and market assessments in support of transactions
• Multinational clients include IBM, Xerox, Lucent, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, LogicaCMG, Akamai, and Areva. Also, regularly work with start-up companies to develop marketing and business strategies to propel growth

Other Activities

• Frequent speaker at U.S. and international technology conferences
• Publications on finance and marketing management

Education

• Masters, Harvard University - Political Science
• A.B., magna cum laude, Harvard College

Doug Molitor

Areas of expertise

• Software Applications, ICs, Disk & Tape Storage, Wireless Hardware & Software
• Messaging & Branding, Product Launch, Executive Communications Strategy,
• Articulation of product, brand or corporate vision

Experience

• A senior level hand-on executive specializing in consulting to senior management to help them articulate their vision, create winning market positions and bring new products to market with impact. He is an accomplished communications professional with extensive experience spanning corporate issues and products. He brings creativity and a grasp of business issues to every engagement
• Senior executive appreciate Molitor's broad understanding of business issues that enables him to bring together insight and marketing disciplines to help companies capture value lost along a changing value chain and to position their company in turbulent markets

Clients

• Collaborated with Verifone CEO to present corporate vision, lead to Harvard Business Review case study. Created messaging for Agile Software and Verifone as preparation for for successful IPO. Lead IBM Storage in re-asserting its relationship with key industry analysts. Repositioned Verifone from standalone gray box to global network of services. Built Agiles initial positioning transforming supply-chain software market
• Other clients include CitiCorp Ventures, HP, Intel, KPMG, StorageTek, Sun, Zilog...

Other Activities

• Speaker at Industrial Wireless Applications Summit and other conferences
• Frequent author on networking, trends in the semiconductor industry and factory issues

Education

• B.S., University of Florida
• Extensive continuing education in branding, creativity and business.

Rich Power

Areas of expertise

• Marketing Research, especially for wireless and wireline telecommunications vendors and services providers
• Expert in a variety of broadband technologies including FTTP, WiMax and DOCSIS 3.0

Experience

• Rich started his career in market research and analysis while at General Electric. In his next position he was responsible for indirect channel sales at Data-Control Systems. Following that he had a series of positions with increasing scope and responsibility in product management for several brand names including Teletype Corporation, NCR and AT&T. In total he spent 18 years at "Bell System" companies

Clients

• Rich has worked on engagements for most of the major US telecommunications carriers, a number of second tier carriers and many of their suppliers. Clients have included AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Qwest, Cablevision, and Deltacom

Other Activities

• Rich was also an adjunct professor for an MBA program at Dowling College where he taught Marketing Management

Education

• M.B.A., Columbia Business School
• B.S., Lafayette College

Ray Skowyra

Areas of expertise

• Telecommunications, Storage & Storage Networking and Internet Infrastructure
• Strategic Positioning, Marketing Strategy, New Market & Technology Assessment

Experience

• Ray has twenty-five years of technology marketing experience, including 15 years of strategic marketing consulting experience with Silicon Valley-based market consulting firm Regis McKenna Inc. and as an independent consultant. He has worked with technology-based companies to develop and implement business strategies, assess new market opportunities and successfully position and launch new products and services
• Prior to consulting, Ray held management positions in sales and marketing at ADC Telecommunications, Network Communications, and the General Electric Company

Clients

• Ray's client work includes projects with telecommunications equipment vendors & service providers, storage networking vendors, networking companies, and medical device makers
• Multinational clients include 3M, Alcatel Lucent, AT&T, Avaya, Cisco, Guidant, HP, IBM, NextPoint, NTT, Redback, Spirent, Sun/StorageTek and Verizon. Also, Ray regularly works with start-up companies to develop marketing and business strategies to propel growth

Other Activities

• Ray is active with Minnesota High Tech Association, has served on the governing board of the National Communications Forum, and as an adjunct professor in the MBA program at the University of St. Thomas
• He has worked extensively on small company business issues in Minnesota with the Small Business Development Center at the University of Saint Thomas, Minnesota Technology and LifeScience Alley

Education

• M.B.A., Harvard Business School
• B.S. Engineering, cum laude, Worcester Polytechnic Institute