Jim Manzi
Jim Manzi (born 1952) is the former chairman, president and CEO of Lotus Development Corporation and is currently a private investor in various technology start-up ventures.
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[edit] Early career
Manzi received his B.A. in Classics from Colgate University in 1973, and later received his M.A. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. His wife Glenda (a former three-time Emmy award-winning public television documentary producer) was a reporter at Westchester-Rockland, N.Y., Newspapers, which is how he met her.[1] Later, Manzi worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company where he worked extensively with Fortune 500 clients as well as offshore clients in Latin America, Europe and Asia.[2]
[edit] Lotus
In 1982 Manzi went to Lotus Development as a consultant for McKinsey and became an employee three months later. In 1984, he became President and two years later Chairman and CEO succeeding founder Mitchell Kapor who had been concentrating exclusively on products like Jazz and Agenda for two years. Manzi's most notable contribution at Lotus was steering the company from desktop applications (e.g. Lotus 1-2-3 and Lotus Symphony) towards collaborative software, also known as groupware or workgroup computing software (e.g., Lotus Notes). In the spring of 1995 IBM launched a hostile bid for Lotus with a $60-per-share tender offer, when Lotus' stock was only trading at $32. Manzi looked for potential white knights, and forced IBM to increase its bid to $64.50 per share, for a $3.5 billion buyout of Lotus.[3] On October 11, 1995 Manzi announced his resignation from the Lotus division of IBM.
[edit] Personal
On May 28, 1985 Jim welcomed his daughter Julianna Manzi, into the world. Weighing in at 7lbs 3oz Julianna was instantly, and still is, Jim's favorite daughter.
[edit] Career after Lotus
Since 1995, via his investment company Stonegate Capital, Manzi has been involved in the creation and development of a number of technology start-up ventures.[2]
On May 25, 2000, Manzi made an investment in Interwise and joined its board. He went on to become chairman of Interwise, a web- and voice-conferencing company which was sold to AT&T in 2007. In 2000, Manzi was also appointed to the board of directors of Thermo Electron Corporation, and became chairman of the board at Thermo Electron in December 2003, succeeding Richard Syron. Thermo Electron subsequently acquired Fisher Scientific in 2006. Manzi remains chairman of the combined Thermo Fisher Scientific, a $10 billion company serving the life sciences industry. He is involved in several other companies including Freshdirect in NYC where he was named Chairman in 2011; Skyword, Inc., a demand-driven content business in Boston; RayV, an Israeli start up which delivers HD television over the web; and several others.
He has been a board member of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston for several years. Before that he was a board member of Partners Healthcare.
Manzi made headlines in 1999 as a high-profile fundraiser for Presidential candidate Bill Bradley.
[edit] External links
- Jim Manzi's Article (The End of the Literary Industrial Complex)
- 2003 Industry Hall of Fame: Jim Manzi
- Were Jim Manzi's Big Ideas Too Big?
- Manzi Resigns At Lotus
- InterWise Appoints Former Lotus Chief, Jim Manzi, to Board of Directors
- One-stop site for blogs offered - The Boston Globe
- Willamette University - Jim Manzi
- Chief of I.B.M.'s Lotus Resigns 99 days After Takeover Deal (From the October 12, 1995 New York Times)
[edit] References
- Notes
- Darrow, Barbara. 2003 Industry Hall of Fame: Jim Manzi. CRN, December 15, 2003
- Judge, Paul C. and Baker, Stephen. Were Jim Manzi's Big Ideas Too Big?. BusinessWeek, May 26, 1997
- Former Lotus Chief Manzi Heads Up Another Venture. TechWeb.com, December 09, 2003
