Special Board Election Interviews: Candidates Discuss Ideas, Agendas and Issues

In June, elections for four seats on the UniForum Association board of directors will take place. All general members soon will receive ballots by mail. Terms are for two years. In this issue of UniNews, we bring you brief interviews with four of the seven candidates. The next issue will include interviews with the other three candidates. If you are a general member, these interviews can help you in understanding which candidates you feel you should support. And remember: It is critical that you vote. The future direction of the Association is in your hands!

Jeanne Baccash | Randall Howard

Jerry Popek | Michael Prince

Jeanne Baccash
VP of Enterprise Network and Systems Management
AT&T/NCR

Baccash is seeking a second term as a board member. In describing her qualifications as a candidate, she points to over 20 years of experience in the open systems industry, 12 years of experience in managing Unix strategy and plans at AT&T and two years of running an AT&T software development organization involved with Unix and Windows NT.

"I can offer a broad experience of the Unix industry from many perspectives," she says. "That includes being a developer, an architect, a strategist and also a customer of open systems." She adds that she and her division have worked directly with software developers and end users for projects designed for banks, retail institutions and other businesses, giving her first-hand knowledge of user needs in these industries.

Baccash feels that organizations like UniForum have a valuable role in helping users satisfy what are sometimes conflicting needs. Today's open systems users, she says, are looking for two things: competitive, best-of-breed technology on the one hand and the freedom of not being locked into a restrictive environment on the other. "They like one-stop shopping," she says, "so they like coming to a single provider who has integrated technologies, but they don't want the restrictions of doing business with a single vendor."

If reelected as a board member, Baccash will focus on providing education to members to help them deal with these paradoxical requirements. She cites as an example the need to learn about the new Internet-based Java technology. "There's so much new technology out there, people need to know what it means and what their options are."

More education, she notes, can help users make better decisions. "Just because the Internet sounds like the biggest thing out there now, does that mean that we have to necessarily go to company X to get that technology?" she asks. "Possibly not, because if you know enough about the technology, there are a lot of choices and options. UniForum can help people get up to speed and demystify a lot of this stuff."

Although she sees her role as being an advocate for both users and vendors, Baccash wants to focus on providing in-depth, up-to-date information for "people in this industry who aren't necessarily the big vendors but the IT managers and players in the banks, the retail businesses, the telecommunication and transportation areas, and others." UniForum should continue to "keep the channels of technology information open and strengthen its position as a vendor-neutral forum for getting that information out."

Randall Howard
Chairman and CEO
Mortice Kern Systems

Randall Howard is also seeking a second term. Being an experienced board member is a benefit, he says, because "it sometimes takes a couple of years to learn the organization." He cites his experience in working with Unix and Unix standards bodies, his role as a software vendor of Unix-based products, and his desire to expand the identity of UniForum, its trade show and its conferences.

Howard's background with Unix goes back to his student days in the early 1970s. He has worked with a number of Unix standards organizations for IEEE and POSIX standards as well as ISO standards. He has also been involved with X/Open Co., helping to represent software vendors.

In talking about his background with Unix technology, Howard cites in particular his experience with Mortice Kern Systems. "At MKS we've worked with people in the Unix marketplace and in the enterprise-computing marketplace," he says. "We've also worked with hardware and software vendors and with many of the large users, so we have a strong track record of dealing with people who make open systems technology happen in the industry." As a result of his experience at MKS, Howard asserts that he can bring to the UniForum board a valuable perspective based on representing a wide range of interests in the industry.

In discussing what issues he would like to focus on in the next two years, Howard emphasizes that the Internet and intranets represent a new model for open systems and that this model should be reflected in how UniForum positions itself to its members and to the industry at large. Referring to this year's trade show and conference, Howard declares that "a lot of the potential customers saw UniForum '96 as a Unix show; they didn't see it as a Unix show with a lot more." He says that more work has to be done to reposition UniForum's image in the industry as "more than Unix."

Howard also states that UniForum is more than the trade show and conference. "It's a service organization that offers valuable training and education for members. The world isn't getting simpler for IT people. They need help in sorting out today's issues, and UniForum is a well-equipped organization to continue to help them do these things."

When asked why he was running, Howard declared, "I've had a glimpse in my first term of a job that involved the transition of the organization. I'd like to see it through to the next step and help UniForum assume its proper role in this changing world. If UniForum is successful in that one goal, everything else will fall into place."

Jerry Popek
Chief Technology Officer
Platinum Technologies

In running for a first term as a UniForum board member, Popek stresses inclusiveness and the importance of working with the widest possible range of industry players. "We don't need a battlefield mentality," he says. "If you're going to be a success in the industry, you need a view of open systems based on strong alliances and coordination with other solutions."

Popek has worked in the open systems arena since 1972. He mentions that, among other things, he ran one of the first Unix systems, designed and built the first distributed Unix system, and developed the technology that enables shrink-wrapped Windows applications to run on Intel/Unix systems.

Describing his business background, Popek pointed out that he founded Locus Computing Corp. and currently works with a variety of users and vendors as CTO of one of the largest software companies in the world. "My role at Platinum," he says, "gives me additional perspective on what's important in the industry in terms of issues and how to get these issues addressed."

If elected to the board, Popek would like to emphasize the business and technical aspects of the Internet and intranets. "The kinds of pressures, tensions and requirements that drove open systems in the first place at the operating system level now apply at the Internet and intranet level," he says. "UniForum would be very well served if it applies its open systems energies and perspectives a bit more broadly than it has in the past. There already is a movement in that direction, but the industry, the customer and the Association itself need to have this movement continue."

More specifically, Popek says that an ever-broadening perspective must be based on cooperation with all technologies, regardless of whether they are perceived as "open." "Many UniForum members and players have viewed other operating systems as the enemy," he asserts. "But we have to realize that the real goal of serving UniForum members is serving UniForum member customers. The customer is faced with a heterogeneous world and is best served, in my opinion, by a heterogeneous environment of suppliers and technology."

Popek adds that when customers can mix and match products in their environments, they can choose what is best for their needs. "If we don't cooperate with different technologies, then the customer will become a closed shop, and we all lose by that kind of thinking."

This all-inclusive approach to openness is, Popek says, one of the main reasons that he is running for the board. "I believe deeply in the open systems model. It's an extraordinarily important philosophy, and it's at the core of what UniForum stands for. As a board member, I'd like to influence the direction the industry takes so that open systems does indeed prevail in the long term."

Michael Prince
Chief Information Officer
Burlington Coat Factory

Mike Prince has been an ex officio and later a full member of the UniForum Association board for the past two years. When asked what he might bring to a second term, he referred to the fact that, unlike most board members, he offers a strong background as an experienced end user of open systems technology.

"I've been working with Unix and open systems for a long time," says Prince. He points out that Burlington Coat Factory helped pioneer the use of open technologies for commercial business applications in the 1980s, long before many other organizations adopted open system platforms. "We are and have been firmly committed to open systems; we have no proprietary mainframes here."

He adds that this background as a Unix customer allows him to think in "real-world terms" about open systems. "I work with a number of system administrators, programmers and database administrators at Burlington," says Prince. "We have to think in terms of what works or what doesn't work, rather than in terms of a particular product or area of the technology." As a result, he feels that he is accessible to a variety of viewpoints and approaches, based on the different solutions he has helped develop for Burlington. He also mentions that in his role as an end user he has accumulated a number of both vendor and user contacts, an important factor in the growth of a professional organization like UniForum.

In speaking of UniForum, Prince asserts that the Association is at an important crossroads this year. "I think UniForum is dealing with basic issues of identity," he says. Many of these issues, according to Prince, are prompted by the fact that Unix has become so widely accepted. "It's not hot news anymore. People have accepted it. The term 'open' has lost most of its meaning. The real focus now is the Internet and intranets and Windows NT and Java." These topics will, says Prince, define the identity of UniForum and the trade show, and he looks forward to helping the Association in this process of redefinition.

He adds that UniForum is already in the process of redefining and expanding its role, citing the excellent educational seminars and tutorials that it now offers, as well as the recently founded UniForum Press.

Summing up, Prince says, "We need leadership, insight and a real-world perspective. I think I've proven I can do that effectively during my first term, and I'd like to continue to do that for a second term."

Board of Directors Election Coming Soon!

UniForum members should watch their mailboxes in early June for their Board of Directors Election ballots. A slate of seven outstanding candidates is running for four seats.Your vote DOES count. Help direct the future of your organization: be sure to vote!