Contact Information: Media Contact: Melissa Lang Voce Communications on behalf of Virtual Instruments (330) 401-9220
Virtual Instruments Welcomes Michael Marks to Board of Directors
Former CEO of Flextronics and Visionary Entrepreneur Brings Over 30 Years of Business Experience to Virtual Instruments
| Quelle: Virtual Instruments
SCOTTS VALLEY, CA--(Marketwire - September 23, 2009) - Virtual
Instruments, a leader in virtual infrastructure optimization, today
announced Michael Marks, former CEO and board chairman of Flextronics, was appointed to
Virtual Instruments' board of directors. Marks, an expert in electronics
manufacturing and vertical business integration, will join the board,
effective immediately. He will offer guidance to the company as it expands
and continues to build momentum on top of last year's record growth of 200
percent over the prior year.
As the former CEO of Flextronics, Marks brings extensive experience with
supply chain management and integration to Virtual Instruments. He spent 13
years as CEO of Flextronics International Ltd. and built the company from
$93 million to $25 billion. During his tenure, which culminated in his
appointment as chairman, Marks established operations in over 35 countries
and integrated over 100 acquisitions. He is also credited with leading
Flextronics through the 2000 "bust," steadily holding revenues and
surpassing its primary competitor, Solectron Corporation.
"As we evolve and expand globally, an innovative and strategic thinker like
Michael can help us scale operations and supply chain management," said
Mark Urdahl, CEO of Virtual Instruments. "Michael's proven track record in
manufacturing strategy, coupled with his many deep industry relationships,
makes him an ideal board member for Virtual Instruments."
"Virtual Instruments' pioneering approach to SAN and virtual infrastructure
optimization technology solutions dramatically improves a company's IT
efficiency and uptime while enabling intelligent IT cost-cutting and
consolidation -- a critical requirement for enterprise data centers," said
Marks. "I am looking forward to working with my fellow board members to
help the company capitalize on its amazing success in this turbulent
economy."
Marks is currently a founding partner of Riverwood Capital and was a
partner and senior advisor at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) in 2006
and 2007. Electronic Business Magazine named Marks one of the Top Ten Most
Influential Executives in Silicon Valley History and its 2003 CEO of the
Year. Additionally, Marks was honored by Fortune, who named him one of the
"Heroes in U.S. Manufacturing." He is on the board of directors for
SanDisk Corporation, Schlumberger Limited, Zappos.com, Inc., in addition to
two non-profit organizations -- the V Foundation for Cancer Research and
the National Parks Conservation Association. Marks earned an MBA from
Harvard Business School, and a BA and MA from Oberlin College.
About Virtual Instruments
Virtual Instruments offers the award-winning NetWisdom and VirtualWisdom
virtual infrastructure optimization solutions that provide deep monitoring
and analysis of how the virtualized IT infrastructure and SAN affect
business-critical application performance. Customers such as Barclay's Card
Services, Kaiser Permanente and McKesson Corp. achieve significant cost
savings in virtualization and SAN deployments by optimizing utilization,
performance and availability of IT resources. Leading system and storage
vendors including IBM, HP and EMC leverage Virtual Instruments to design
and optimize SAN solutions for enterprise customers. The company was
founded in June 2008 via a spin-out from Finisar Corp.; it has headquarters
in Scotts Valley, Calif., and can be found online at
http://www.virtualinstruments.com.