Edward Botwinick

Last updated
Edward Botwinick
NationalityAmerican
Education Columbia University (BA, BS)
Occupation(s)IT Entrepreneur, investor
Employer Unisys
Known forFounding Timeplex
Relatives James Wolfensohn (brother-in-law)

Edward Botwinick is an American businessman, investor, and IT industry entrepreneur. [1]

Contents

Biography

Botwinick graduated from Columbia College with a BA in 1956 and the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science with a BS in 1958. [2]

Upon graduating from Columbia, Botwinick worked for US Semiconductor Corporation before co-founding Silicon Transistor Corporation. After the company went public, it was acquired in 1963. From 1963 to 1967, Botwinick was president and a shareholder Quantum Inc. He then joined Goldman Sachs as Vice President of high-tech investment research and venture capital. [1] [3]

At Goldman, Botwinick, he learned of the opportunity to invest in American Data Systems, the company behind Time-division multipliers. [1] He then invested, and co-founded Timeplex and became Chairman and CEO of the company in 1977. [4] [5] In the next few years, he led the company to launch a number of successful statistical multiplexer products, including the T-1 multiplexers, and made it one of the first companies to use microprocessors in its systems. [6] [7]

In 1987, Unisys acquired Timeplex for $307 million and Botwinick became Senior Vice President of Unisys and President of Unisys Networks. [1] [8] [9] He retired from Unisys in 1989. [10]

Botwinick sat on the board of Duke Cancer Institute and Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, and was a trustee of Columbia University. [7] [2] He currently serves as a president of the Botwinick-Wolfensohn Foundation. [11] [12]

Personal life and family

Botwinick's father was Benjamin Botwinick, businessman and philanthropist who founded Benjamin Botwinick & Co., a New York City accounting firm. [13] His sister, Elaine Botwinick, was married to World Bank president James Wolfensohn. [14] [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unisys</span> American global information technology company

Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company founded in 1986 and headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. The company provides digital workplace, cloud applications and infrastructure, enterprise computing, business process, AI technology, and data analytics services.

Convergent Technologies, Inc., was an American computer company formed by a small group of people who left Intel Corporation and Xerox PARC in 1979. Among the founders were CEO Allen Michels, VP Engineering Bob Garrow, head of marketing Kal Hubler, and operating system architect Ben Wegbreit. Convergent was primarily an OEM vendor with their computers resold by other manufacturers such as ADP, AT&T, Burroughs, Four-Phase Systems, Gould, Mohawk, Monroe Data Systems, NCR, and Prime. The company was purchased by Unisys in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Wolfensohn</span> Banker, former World Bank president

Sir James David Wolfensohn was an Australian-American lawyer, investment banker, and economist who served as the ninth president of the World Bank Group (1995–2005). During his tenure at the World Bank, he is credited with the focus on poverty alleviation and a rethink on development financing, earning him recognition as a banker to the world's poor. In his other roles, he is credited with actions that brought Chrysler Corporation back from the brink of bankruptcy, and also improving the finances of major United States cultural institutions, including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He served two terms as President of the World Bank on the nomination of U.S. President Bill Clinton, and thereafter held various positions with charitable organizations and policy think-tanks including the Brookings Institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Data Group</span> Publishing company

International Data Group is a market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.'s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technology, and insights that help create and sustain relationships between businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science</span> School of Columbia University in New York

The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded as the School of Mines in 1863 and then the School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry before becoming the School of Engineering and Applied Science. On October 1, 1997, the school was renamed in honor of Chinese businessman Z.Y. Fu, who had donated $26 million to the school.

Memorex Corp. began as a computer tape producer and expanded to become both a consumer media supplier and a major IBM plug compatible peripheral supplier. It was broken up and ceased to exist after 1996 other than as a consumer electronics brand specializing in disk recordable media for CD and DVD drives, flash memory, computer accessories and other electronics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zenith Data Systems</span> American computer company (1979–1996)

Zenith Data Systems Corporation (ZDS) was an American computer systems manufacturing company active from 1979 to 1996. It was originally a division of the Zenith Radio Company, after they had purchased the Heath Company and, by extension, their Heathkit line of electronic kits and kit microcomputers, from Schlumberger in October 1979. ZDS originally operated from Heath's own headquarters in St. Joseph, Michigan. By the time Zenith acquired Heathkit, their H8 kit computer already had an installed fanbase of scientific engineers and computing enthusiasts. ZDS' first offerings were merely preassembled versions of existing Heathkit computers, but within a few years, the company began selling bespoke systems, including the Z-100, which was a hybrid 8085- and 8088-based computer capable of running both CP/M and MS-DOS.

Judith "Judy" L. Estrin is an American entrepreneur, business executive, and philanthropist. She co-founded eight technology companies. Estrin worked with Vinton Cerf on the Transmission Control Protocol project at Stanford University in the 1970s. She was the chief technology officer of Cisco Systems from 1998 to 2000. Since 2007, Estrin has been the CEO of JLABS, LLC, a privately held company focused on furthering innovation in business, government, and nonprofit organizations.

Network Systems Corporation (NSC) was an early manufacturer of high-performance computer networking products. Founded in 1974, NSC produced hardware products that connected IBM and Control Data Corporation (CDC) mainframe computers to peripherals at remote locations. NSC also developed and commercialized the HYPERchannel networking system and protocol standards, adopted by Cray Research, Tektronix and others. In the late 1980s, NSC extended HYPERchannel to support the TCP/IP networking protocol and released a product allowing HYPERchannel devices to connect to the emerging Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vanguard Managed Solutions</span> Former American data network company

Vanguard Managed Solutions (VanguardMS) was a limited liability company (LLC) which specialized in monitoring live data networks from network operations centers (NOCs) from 2001 to 2007. It began as Codex Corporation then was a division of Motorola, and then purchased by Platinum Equity. Platinum merged the network monitoring business section to CompuCom in 2007, but retained the IP router business renamed to Vanguard Networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altos Computer Systems</span> Unix manufacturer

Altos Computer Systems was founded in 1977 by David G. Jackson and Roger William Vass Sr. It focused on small multi-user computers, starting with multi-user derivatives of CP/M, and later including Unix and Xenix-based machines. In its 1982 initial public offering on NASDAQ, the company raised $59M. Thereafter the company's stock was traded under the symbol ALTO.

James W. Breyer is an American venture capitalist, founder and chief executive officer of Breyer Capital, an investment and venture philanthropy firm, and a former managing partner at Accel Partners, a venture capital firm. Breyer has invested in over 40 companies that have gone public or completed a merger, with some of these investments, including Facebook, earning over 100 times cost and many others over 25 times cost. On the Forbes 2021 list of the 400 richest Americans, he was ranked #389, with a net worth of US$2.9 billion.

Circle is a peer-to-peer payments technology company that now manages stablecoin USDC, a cryptocurrency the value of which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. It was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013. Circle is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. USDC, the second largest stablecoin worldwide, is designed to hold at or near a stable price of $1. The majority of its stablecoin collateral is held in short-term U.S. government securities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Communications Associates</span> American company

Digital Communication Associates, Inc. (DCA), was a company in the computer and telecommunications industry, located in Alpharetta, Georgia, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Muglia</span> American business executive (born 1959)

Bob Muglia is an American business executive and research and development specialist. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Snowflake Computing, a data warehousing startup. Muglia is known for managing divisions at Microsoft that supported the Microsoft Office Suite, Windows Server and MSN Network product families. He was one of four presidents that reported directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The Protocol Wars were a long-running debate in computer science that occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s, when engineers, organizations and nations became polarized over the issue of which communication protocol would result in the best and most robust networks. This culminated in the Internet–OSI Standards War in the 1980s and early 1990s, which was ultimately "won" by the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) by the mid-1990s when it became the dominant protocol suite through rapid adoption of the Internet.

Harry J. Saal is an American technology entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aox Inc.</span> American technology corporation

Aox Inc. was a privately run American technology corporation founded by Michael and Linda Aronson in 1978. Over the course of its 22-year lifespan, the company chiefly developed software and hardware for IBM's PC and compatibles, for the Personal System/2, and for the Macintosh. In its twilight years, the company designed multimedia and teleconferencing devices and chip designs. Aox was founded after Michael Aronson graduated from Harvard University with a doctorate in physics; he stayed with the company until 2000, when he incorporated EndPoints Inc. and switched to full-time fabless semiconductor design.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Botwinick, Edward interview. Edward Botwinick , James L. Pelkey. Woodcliff Lake, NJ: Computer History Museum. 1988-03-10.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. 1 2 Columbia College (Columbia University). Office of Alumni Affairs and Development; Columbia College (Columbia University) (1988). Columbia College today. Columbia University Libraries. New York, N.Y. : Columbia College, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development.
  3. Pelkey, James L.; Russell, Andrew L.; Robbins, Loring G. (2022-04-19). Circuits, Packets, and Protocols: Entrepreneurs and Computer Communications, 1968-1988. Morgan & Claypool. ISBN   978-1-4503-9729-2.
  4. "Timeplex | History of Computer Communications". historyofcomputercommunications.info. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  5. Computerworld. International Data Group. 1981-02-23.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. Network World. IDG Network World Inc. 1986-11-10.
  7. 1 2 "Columbia Engineering Magazine - Spring 2012 by Columbia Engineering School - Issuu". issuu.com. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  8. "TIMEPLEX-CENTRED UNISYS NETWORKS WILL LEAD BIDS FOR CORPORATE NETWORK SALES". Tech Monitor. 1988-02-15. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  9. Enterprise, I. D. G. (1988-02-08). Computerworld. IDG Enterprise.
  10. "EXECUTIVE CHANGES". The New York Times. 1989-02-16. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  11. Roberts, Ken Schwencke, Mike Tigas, Sisi Wei, Alec Glassford, Andrea Suozzo, Brandon (2013-05-09). "Botwinick Wolfensohn Foundation Inc - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. Retrieved 2022-06-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. "The Trustees Emeriti | Office of the Secretary". secretary.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  13. School, Columbia Business (2017-06-12). "About Benjamin Botwinick '26". The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics. Retrieved 2022-06-29.{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  14. "Elaine Wolfensohn | Albright Institute". www.wellesley.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  15. Hershey, Robert D. Jr. (2020-11-26). "James D. Wolfensohn, Who Led the World Bank for 10 Years, Dies at 86". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-06-29.