MIDDLEWARE
Distinguished Industry Veteran Irene Qualters to Head Software Strategy at SGI
New Executive to Oversee Efforts to Develop and Productize SGI Industrial Strength Linux Environment: SGI today named Irene Qualters the company's new senior vice president of software. An industry veteran with a successful track record that spans more than 20 years, Qualters has led software design and development with leading systems, software and end-user organizations. At SGI, she will be responsible for all software-related activity, including driving the company's efforts to develop and productize the SGI Industrial Strength Linux Environment (ISLE). ISLE is crucial to SGI's strategy to provide a fully integrated compute, storage and visualization environment for high-performance computing (HPC) and enterprise customers. 
Qualters is an established technologist and executive who rose through successive levels of leadership positions at Cray Research, where she was eventually named president of the company. She later moved to SGI, serving as senior vice president until leaving SGI in 1998. She then joined the end-user community as a visiting scientist at NASA/Goddard Flight Center. Following NASA Goddard, Qualters joined Merck & Co. as IT vice president for the pharmaceutical giant's global research labs. There she led the organization that provided IT and application services and support for the worldwide research community at Merck. Most recently, she led software engineering at AGEIA, a company that creates innovative hardware and software that applies breakthrough physics to the games industry. "SGI is excited to see Irene return to our ranks to head a vital element of our long-term product and technology roadmap," said SGI CEO Robert "Bo" Ewald. "With her broad technical expertise and proven business acumen, Irene is uniquely qualified to help SGI continue to change the world with comprehensive, industry-specific solutions for new generations of users." Qualters will report direct to Ewald, and will split her time between the company's Sunnyvale headquarters and its engineering center in Eagan, Minn. "This is an exciting time for SGI, and I'm enthusiastic about the team I'm joining here," said Qualters. "With software taking an increasingly leading role in the SGI strategy, I look forward to the challenge of increasing the value that SGI software delivers to customers, investors and employees." Qualters holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Detroit and a bachelor's degree in mathematics and secondary education from Duquesne University.
Qualters is an established technologist and executive who rose through successive levels of leadership positions at Cray Research, where she was eventually named president of the company. She later moved to SGI, serving as senior vice president until leaving SGI in 1998. She then joined the end-user community as a visiting scientist at NASA/Goddard Flight Center. Following NASA Goddard, Qualters joined Merck & Co. as IT vice president for the pharmaceutical giant's global research labs. There she led the organization that provided IT and application services and support for the worldwide research community at Merck. Most recently, she led software engineering at AGEIA, a company that creates innovative hardware and software that applies breakthrough physics to the games industry. "SGI is excited to see Irene return to our ranks to head a vital element of our long-term product and technology roadmap," said SGI CEO Robert "Bo" Ewald. "With her broad technical expertise and proven business acumen, Irene is uniquely qualified to help SGI continue to change the world with comprehensive, industry-specific solutions for new generations of users." Qualters will report direct to Ewald, and will split her time between the company's Sunnyvale headquarters and its engineering center in Eagan, Minn. "This is an exciting time for SGI, and I'm enthusiastic about the team I'm joining here," said Qualters. "With software taking an increasingly leading role in the SGI strategy, I look forward to the challenge of increasing the value that SGI software delivers to customers, investors and employees." Qualters holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Detroit and a bachelor's degree in mathematics and secondary education from Duquesne University.