Board Leadership Team Biography

Dr. Michael D. Zisman

Dr. Michael Zisman serves on the boards of a number of for-profit venture financed enterprises and is very active in a number of non-profit organizations. He is presently Chairman of the Board of Directors of ICG Commerce, and a Board member of Metastorm, Vcommerce, Dataupia, Cashedge and Confluence.

Dr. Zisman spent 9 years at IBM, joining IBM in 1995 when IBM acquired Lotus Development Corporation. Before retiring from IBM in 2004, he was vice president of corporate strategy and focused on IBM's On Demand strategy. Previous to this position, he was General Manager of Storage Software for the IBM Storage Systems Group. This position followed his post as Vice President of Emerging Business Development, reporting to the IBM Vice Chairman. Prior to that, Dr. Zisman served as CEO of Lotus Development Corporation, shortly after Lotus was acquired by IBM. During his tenure at IBM, Dr. Zisman served on the IBM Worldwide Management Council and the IBM Corporate Technology Council.

Before joining IBM, Dr. Zisman was Senior Vice President of the Lotus Communications Products Group, where he helped drive penetration of Lotus Notes from less than 1 million users to over 50 million. He joined Lotus in 1994 after the Company's acquisition of Soft-Switch, Inc., a software firm that he founded in 1979 and headed until that acquisition. Soft-Switch, a venture backed enterprise software company, was a leader in communications infrastructure software related to electronic mail. Investors included Oak Investment Partners, NEA, Greylock, Hambrecht & Quist, T. Rowe Price and Citicorp Ventures.

Prior to founding Soft-Switch, Dr. Zisman was a member of the faculty at the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a member of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science. He first became involved with the Internet/ARPAnet, decision support systems and electronic mail systems in 1975.

Dr. Zisman is a trustee of Lehigh University, where he is a member of the executive committee and the finance committee. He is a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra Board of Directors, where he is a member of the executive committee, the Investment Committee, chair of the Strategy committee and an Orchestra designate to the Board of Directors of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Dr. Zisman is also a member of the Main Line Health Board of Governors, where he is a member of audit committee and investment committee. He is an overseer of the Penn School of Engineering and Applied Science, a member of the Advisory Board of the College of Engineering at Lehigh University, and a former trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Zisman graduated from Lehigh University in 1970 (BS, chemical engineering), from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 (MS, systems engineering), and from the Wharton School at Penn in 1977 (Ph.D., Decision Sciences).