The Blade.org Board of Directors
 

The Blade.org Board of Directors is comprised of senior executives drawn from the ranks of Governing Board member companies.
 
 

	Alex Yost, IBM Systems and Technology Group Vice President and Business Line Executive IBM System x and BladeCenter Alex Yost is VP and Business Line Executive for IBM System x and BladeCenter.  Alex has responsibility for IBM BladeCenter as well as System x High End systems, with 4 sockets and above, as well as the iDataPlex and HP offerings.  Previously, Alex was Director of  Product Management responsible for hardware, options and storage offerings for IBM’s Industry – Standard x86 servers. Prior to that, Alex was the IBM executive responsible for the Intel Alliance.  Alex also worked for IBM in Tokyo Japan as Sales Executive for IBM eServer xSeries in Asia Pacific and  Brand Manager for IBM eServer xSeries in Asia Pacific. Alex has a long history with IBM in the Intel - based server business, and has held various responsibilities in the organization including Worldwide Manager of Product Marketing for IBM eServer xSeries and was operations manager for brand’s Worldwide Marcomm organization before taking brand management responsibility.  Alex has been with IBM System x since 1997.  Before coming to IBM, Alex held sales and channel management positions with Xerox. Alex has a degree in Economics and a Master’s in Business Administration, both from Duke University, in Durham, NC.
	Jason Waxman, Intel, General Manager Jason Waxman is the General Manager in Intel's Server Platforms Group responsible for High Density Servers. His role includes a focus on blade servers, internet datacenters and technology for future dense data center architecture. He has previously served as the director for Intel's Xeon™ processor and chipset product lines and the related platform enabling and customer relationships. Jason has spent the last 9 years of his Intel career in Enterprise computing focused on server products and technologies involved in the introduction of over 12 new platforms. Previous Intel managerial roles have included enterprise performance, platform marketing and end user marketing. Prior to Intel, Jason worked in strategic planning for industrial components company and as a management consultant. He holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees in engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from Cornell University.
	Taufik Ma, Emulex, VP of Product Management Taufik Ma joined Emulex in May 2005 and serves as vice president of product management. Mr. Ma came to Emulex as a result of the company’s acquisition of Aarohi Communications where he was vice president of marketing and business development since 2004. Prior to Aarohi, Taufik spent 17 years at Intel Corporation in a variety of roles including general manager of the Enterprise Platforms and Services Division and director of Enterprise Architecture and Strategic Planning. Mr. Ma received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University.
	Shilesh Naik, Blade Network Technologies, Vice President of Sales Shailesh Naik has more than 25 years of senior sales, marketing and channel experience in the technology sector. He established and led the sales function for Nortel's Blade Server Switch Business Unit. Under his sales leadership, BSSBU garnered the top market share position in a highly competitive market. Prior to joining Nortel, Shailesh held senior executive positions at Qwest as Vice President of Business Development and General Manager of Qwest's Storage Utility business. Previously, he spent 16 years at HP in executive sales and marketing roles including General Manager of storage sales for North America. Shailesh has extensive global experience, having worked in the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and the U.S. He has an MBA from Lancaster University and a bachelor's degree in Economics from Kingston Polytechnic University, United Kingdom.
	Vikram Karvat, QLogic, Vice President of Marketing and Product Development Vikram has 15 years of experience in marketing and sales, in the systems and semiconductor segments. Vikram's career spans the PC, server and networking industries. Prior to joining NetXen, Vikram was director of marketing at Broadcom, where he was responsible for strategic planning and product marketing for server chipsets. While at Broadcom, he successfully launched the storage product line of chips used by top tier enterprise storage vendors. Before that, Vikram spent six years at National Semiconductor marketing processors, server chipsets and networking products. He holds an MBA degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and a BSEE from the University of Alberta, both with honors.
	Daniel Cohen, Brocade, Business Development Executive Daniel has been with Brocade Communications for over 7 years and is responsible for Brocade's business development activities across the various lines of business within IBM. Since Brocade's entry into the BladeCenter ecosystem with the first generation SAN Switch Module, Daniel has been an integral part of the business and development teams within Brocade that have delivered best in class I/O module capabilities for BladeCenter customers. He continues to be involved in the day to day working relationship with IBM to deliver industry leading solutions to BladeCenter customers. In addition to his current role, Daniel has worked in Brocade's solutions marketing group which is tasked with communicating to customers the value of Brocade SAN solutions. Prior to moving to Brocade, Daniel's work experience included positions in organizations focusing on server solutions, storage solutions and IT services. He had responsibility for business development within Hitachi Data Systems OEM sales organization, was a founding partner at a systems integrator focusing on server and storage solutions and worked for SunGard focusing on open systems business continuity solutions. Daniel graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.
	Ken Pierrehumbert, APCC, Global OEM Account Manager Ken Pierrehumbert serves as Global OEM Account Manager at American Power Conversion Corp. acting as manager of the OEM relationship between IBM and APC on a global basis. In this role, Ken is actively working to develop high-performance, energy efficient APC power and cooling solutions to support and complement deployments of IBM blade centers. APC has been an OEM supplier to IBM for over 13 years. Current OEM products include rack-mount UPS units to power the Blade Center and Blade Center H sold under the IBM System x brand. Ken has 27 years of business development experience in the power and IT field with industry leaders including General Electric and Matsushita Electric Corporation.