Executive moves: Barry Klawans leaves JasperSoft
And things were going so well, too.
On the day that JasperSoft proclaimed itself the king of Business Intelligence with 8,000 paid customers and 80,000 active deployments, I found out that Barry Klawans, its CTO, had left the company. When I asked him why he had left, he responded that he had "left simply to unwind, no reflection on the company at all."
Fair enough. After 25 years of relentless startup life, it's not surprising that he'd want to revisit his family and life. (I'd recommend skiing in Utah. We got another two feet last week. :-)
As for JasperSoft, I also talked with a Business Objects executive today who mentioned that he never sees JasperSoft, Pentaho, or Actuate in any of his accounts or sales opportunities. To this I responded, "It's just a matter of time." Fortunately for him, he'll get a reprieve from Barry for awhile. :-)
Best of luck to Barry in whatever you choose to do, my friend.
Disclosure: I am an advisor to JasperSoft.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Kind of reminds me of how Alfred Chuang and his execs used to insist to anyone who would listen that they never saw JBoss in any of their accounts. He could never wrap his head around the fact that the open source business model follows a different customer engagement model. The ability to try the software out is not gated by a sales process.
On a personal note, Matt, you will be glad to hear I've already taken the family skiing twice since I left, though not in Utah. What can I say, as a native Californian I like to support my local resorts.
-Barry Klawans