SCIENCE

Altior has announced the appointment of Robert Zecha as vice president of operations and Jim Carlson as senior director of sales. These senior management additions are the latest step in Altior's strategy to grow its business in its target markets: storage and networking OEMs.

"The addition of Mr. Zecha and Mr. Carlson to Altior's senior management team significantly boosts the strategic management capability that we need to take our growth to the next level," said Ramana Jampala, president and CEO, Altior Inc. "Mr. Zecha's experience as both an entrepreneur and operations executive, together with Mr. Carlson's wide-ranging sales experience, provides Altior with the right combination that we need to proliferate our innovative solutions to customers in growing markets."

Prior to joining Altior, Mr. Zecha was Vice President at Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC), a fabless semiconductor company, where he held various Vice President roles in marketing, business development and engineering, and was responsible for an $80 million networking product line. In his role as Vice President of Engineering, Mr. Zecha was responsible for the re-organization of the software, hardware, quality assurance and Product Test teams. He has been successful as an entrepreneur taking a venture-backed networking company to acquisition as its President and then became VP of Worldwide Engineering and Corporate Officer leading the hardware and software development of Gigabit Ethernet routing switches. He is a member of the IEEE, past steering team member at the UNH Labs for Token Ring and a past member of the ANSI X3T9.5 committee for FDDI. He holds a BSEE from Polytechnic University.

"I am pleased to join the Altior team and look forward to helping take the company to the next level," said Robert Zecha, vice president of operations, Altior. "Our mission is to develop world-class products with state-of-the-art technology to help our customers deliver their products to market faster and cost-effectively."

Mr. Carlson's prior role was Vice President of business development at Xyratex, where his focus included new strategic customer development, global account management, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Carlson has over 25 years of experience in the storage market, including a variety of sales management positions at Seagate in both the OEM and distribution channels. He also led the US sales effort for the company's Consumer Electronics and Emerging Markets for storage solutions. Mr. Carlson holds a BA from Humboldt State University.  

"I am excited about the opportunities that our technology brings to the storage market in particular," said Jim Carlson, senior director of sales, Altior. "Storage companies continue to look for ways to innovate and offer more cost-effective and higher performance solutions. Altior's solutions add measurable value to enable our customers to meet their goals, reduce development costs, and save them time and money."