Stromasys names ex-HP exec as new CEO
September 13, 2012
HP 3000 emulator maker Stromasys named a new CEO this week, with the current chief executive retiring Oct. 1. The privately-held company, still headed by its chairman and founder Robert Boers, named Ling W. Chang as CEO after her 13 years at Compaq and then HP.
Chang, who holds an MS in Computer Engineering as well as business education from the Wharton School, said she's excited to be joining Stromasys "as it embarks on a higher-growth journey." She added that the company's products such as the Charon HPA/3000 virtualization engine "offer a bridge to the future where customers can leverage the cost savings for new initiatives such as cloud services and big data."
Boers thanked Jean-Paul Bergmans "for his contributions as COO and CEO over the last years, which has seen a strong growth in sales as well as new products that are about to enter the market. Jean-Paul will assist Ling with the transition and remain on the board of Stromasys."
Stromasys said Chang's group at HP, the Integration and Technical Services unit, "partnered with Stromasys to increase our mutual share of customers for several years." HP revived its contacts with Stromasys in 2008 regarding the 3000 emulator, which Stromasys had to delay due to a lack of HP technical cooperation. Chang will make her office in New York City, but Stromasys will retain its headquarters in Geneva, along with labs based in Moscow.
The company will proceed with its project to release the Charon HPA/3000 product for emulation in a personal freeware version, Boers confirmed.
The Stromasys press release said that positioning its new CEO in New York should assist in attracting the business of large commercial and government clients.
Locating Stromasys' new CEO in the heart of world's most dynamic business region brings many new opportunities, as we move closer to many large corporations and government organizations that we count for many years as customers. This becomes even more important in a dire economy, where large scale data center modernization necessitates tangible cost savings, which Stromasys' products are designed to accelerate without the cost and time of lengthy migration projects.
"With our increasing focus on direct, management level sales, Ling is very well qualified to grow our company," Boers said in the release. "She also worked many years in IBM in both engineering and account management functions, and in direct sales in Computer Associates."
With the appointment of the new CEO, Stromasys described its core business as "leadership in classic system virtualization, which provides a rapid and smooth transition of critical legacy applications to the modern virtual data center."