Blackstone Expands Management Team To Accelerate Growth In Serving Compute Power.

Business/Technology Editors

WORCESTER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2000

New Team Focused on Helping Companies Use Compute Farms to Achieve

Faster Results from Engineering and Analysis Applications

Blackstone Technology Group, the premier compute farm services provider, today announced its expanded management team with appointments for six new positions. Mark Coggeshall joins as vice president of corporate development and acting chief operating officer; Naaz Page as vice president of sales; Robert Barker as vice president of business development and west coast operations; Elliott Berger as director of industry methodologies; Richard Edelman as director of research and development; and Matthew Trunnell as director of technology architecture. The team is charged with helping companies that rely on analysis-based applications, such as chip simulation and gene sequencing programs, meet their growing need for compute power through compute farms.

Coggeshall brings 16 years of operational and product management experience in technology and manufacturing sectors to his role of overseeing Blackstone's day-to-day operations. Page draws from her highly successful account management experience at Synopsys, Inc., where she was consistently a top performer and world-class team builder. With 26 years of success in marketing, product management, operations, and private and industry fund generation at EDA firms, Barker is responsible for driving business development and building Blackstone's west coast operations. With 19 years of management and engineering experience in EDA, Berger oversees the methodology component of Blackstone's service model, ensuring industry-specific best practice compute farm implementations and policies for customers. Edelman leverages nearly ten years of experience leading electronic engineering departments as he drives Blackstone's research and development efforts. Matthew Trunnell brings over ten years of experience in information technology and scientific research to his role of director of technology architecture at Blackstone.

"Companies are looking for a solution to their dilemma of not having enough compute power to support the varying doses demanded each day by analysis and engineering applications," said Blackstone president and chief executive officer Ron Ranauro. "Our new management team members - all leading producers in their respective areas - recognize this and see Blackstone's service model as the right approach. We are very pleased to have each of these talented executives on our management team."

Biographies of New Management Team Members

Mark Coggeshall, vice president of corporate development and acting chief operating officer, brings 16 years of product development, operations and product management experience in technology and manufacturing sectors to his role at Blackstone. He joined the firm from Avid Sports where he was responsible for research and development, product marketing, program management, quality assurance, and documentation efforts. Prior to Avid Sports, Coggeshall was with Bose Corporation for ten years where he oversaw the introduction of the company's first internationally designed and manufactured product, and spearheaded the company's new business development venture. Prior to Bose, Coggeshall held program management and new product development positions with Digital Equipment Corporation and Data General Corporation. He holds a bachelor's of science in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Naaz Page, vice president of sales, brings 14 years of electronics industry experience and tremendous sales leadership skills to Blackstone. She joined the firm from Synopsis where she was consistently a top performer and builder of highly successful sales teams. At Synopsis, Page continually exceeded sales projections, and in her last year, doubled regional business - selling more than $4 million in tools and consulting. Page negotiated several volume purchase agreements and beat out the competition to convert numerous major accounts to Synopsis. Prior to Synopsis, Page served four years as senior application engineer at Cadence Design Systems, where she greatly advanced the company's training program. Before Cadence, Page was a hardware engineer at Raytheon where she designed solutions for advanced air-to-air missiles. Page holds a bachelor's of science in electronic engineering from Boston University and is enrolled in a master's program for computer engineering at Northeastern University.

Robert Barker, vice president of business development and west coast operations, possesses 26 years of success in marketing, product management, operations, and private and industry fund generation at EDA firms. Prior to Blackstone, Barker was the founder of IFR Marketing Associates, a corporate and product sales and marketing consulting firm. At IFR, Barker played a leading role in helping one client solicit and receive more than $4 million in commitments from private and industry funding sources. Prior to founding IFR, he spent five years at Exemplar Logic, serving as vice president of marketing, and later vice president and general manager of operations, leading management efforts prior to the company's IPO filing. Barker holds a bachelor's of science in electrical engineering from California State Polytechnic University.

Elliott Berger, director of industry practices, brings 19 years of management and engineering experience to Blackstone. Berger oversees the methodology component of Blackstone's service model, ensuring industry-specific best practice compute farm implementations and policies for customers. Prior to Blackstone, Berger served the dual role of IC designer and CAE Manager at Pixel Magic, Inc. Berger was responsible for design methodology and tool selection while performing chip design from design entry through back-end verification of leading-edge document image processing chips. Prior to Pixel Magic, Berger led a cross-functional team of 25 engineers in the development of the next generation, all-electronic cockpit of the workhorse C-130 military transport airplane for Lockheed Sanders. Several chips Berger designed at Analytyx Electronic Systems are performing critical functions on board a satellite-based solar telescope. He also was a pioneer in the exploitation of the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) System for commercial applications. Berger holds a bachelor's of science in electronic engineering from MIT and a degree from Northeastern University's top-rated High Technology Master's of Business Administration program.

Richard Edelman, director of research and development, leads new product development for Blackstone, leveraging nearly ten years of engineering management experience. Edelman joined Blackstone from electronic design automation tool manufacturer Design Acceleration (now part of Cadence Design Systems) where he was an engineering director and led the development of Cadence's verification software tools. Edelman was responsible for staffing in engineering and support, driving engineering development, solidifying engineering practices, and providing technology reviews and updates to key customers. Prior to Cadence, Edelman was the vice president of engineering at SimQuest Corporation, where he defined, implemented, and tested software integration products for EDA customers. Edelman holds a bachelor's of science in electrical engineering, a bachelor's of science in computer science and a master's of science in computer science, all from Washington University in St. Louis.

Matthew Trunnell brings over ten years of experience in information technology and scientific research to his role of director of technology architecture at Blackstone. Trunnell joined Blackstone from an extended consultation at Genome Therapeutics Corporation where he led design and implementation efforts for the bioinformatics computational infrastructure, and managed the computer systems team for this large-scale genomics research company. Trunnell's contributions, ranging from scientific programming and application development - to the design and administration of UNIX-based computing infrastructures in research environments, serve as critical background experience for his role of developing strategies for the allocation and management of compute farm resources. Trunnell holds a bachelor's of arts in geological and geophysical sciences from Princeton University and a master's of science in physical oceanography from the University of Washington.

About Blackstone Technology Group

Blackstone creates powerful and dynamic computing environments that enable ASPs, ISV's, and global enterprises to host compute power-intensive applications on-demand. These organizations leverage Blackstone's application-specific expertise and knowledge of IT infrastructures to serve EDA, biotech, software development, and other analysis heavy markets. Blackstone-powered organizations are able to efficiently host applications such as chip simulation, gene mapping, and digital animation. Blackstone provides an end-to-end compute power solution that spans needs analysis, design, implementation, and ongoing maintenance and support services. More information on Blackstone can be found at www.btgp.com and by contacting the company at 508-793-2162 or through email, [e-mail].

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