Irwin H. Pfister, Chairman
Irwin Pfister is a private investor focused on mid market technology and industrial products businesses. He is also an active Operating Partner with Baird Capital Partners, the Chicago based private equity arm of R.W. Baird, Inc.
In addition to being Chairman at PCN, Irwin’s current board roles include; Chairman with Pentagon Technologies, Inc.; a supplier of products and services to improve efficiency of semiconductor manufacturing fabs. He is also Chairman of Flatirons Solutions, Inc.; a consulting and systems integrator of software systems for enterprise document control and government tracking systems.
Prior to his retirement 5 years ago, Irwin was CEO of SchlumbergerSema. With more than 40,000 employees in 130 countries, SchlumbergerSema was a $4 billion business group of Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB), a global technology services company. SchlumbergerSema provided products, consulting, systems integration, outsourcing and network security services to the telecom, oil and gas, utility, semiconductor, national and regional governments, finance, and health services industries. He also served as Schlumberger’s executive to the International Olympic Committee. Preceding his leadership of SchlumbergerSema, Irwin was President of a business group of SchlumbergerSema with operations and manufacturing facilities in 70 different countries.
Under his direction, Schlumberger became the world’s leading provider of smart cards and the only smart card company with a total solution offering that included data security consulting and systems design, point of sale transactions terminals for retail, municipal and industrial applications, and consulting/systems integrations services. As President, he formed a joint venture, later purchased by Schlumberger, with Cable and Wireless, focused on Internet and networking security. Pfister also expanded Schlumberger operations to include the world’s most comprehensive line of metering equipment for the utility industry.
Before joining Schlumberger in 1986, Pfister served in senior management roles with Computer Automation, Inc., Electronics Associates, Inc. and Computer Science Corporation.
Irwin’s prior board roles have been with:
- Veeco Instruments, Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) – A provider of process and metrology equipment for the semiconductor, disk drive, LED and solar industries as Lead Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair.
- NPTest, Inc (Merged with Credence Test Systems – NASDAQ:CMOS); Leading manufacturer of metrology and test equipment for the semiconductor industry as Chairman
- GIMV (Belgian); The venture capital arm for the Flemish Government as Advisor
- Information Technology Association of America (ITAA); the leading trade association for IT consulting and services companies as a Board Member
- Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) as Chairman
Jerre L. Stead, Director
Jerre L. Stead joined the PCN Technology,Inc. Board of Directors in October of 2008. From 1996 until his June 1, 2000 retirement, Mr. Stead was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ingram Micro Inc., a leading distributor of computers and peripherals. Mr. Stead has also held the position of Chief Executive Officer at Square D Co. which was acquired by Schneider Electric, S.A.
He also served as CEO of AT&T Global Information Solutions (NCR Corporation) and Legent Corporation. Since 2006, Mr. Stead has served as Chairman of the Board and CEO for IHS, one of the leading global providers of critical technical information, decision-support tools, and related services to customers in the energy, defense, aerospace, construction, electronics, and automotive industries.
Mr. Stead is currently also a Director of Armstrong Holdings, Inc., Conexant Systems, Mobility Electronics, Inc., Brightpoint, Inc. and TBG Group. He also held numerous positions during a 21-year career at Honeywell. He is a well-known Author of Executive books including “Flight of the Buffalo” and is the Chairman of the Board for the Center of Ethics and Values at Garret Seminary at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Dr. Joseph E. Kasputys, Director
Dr. Joseph Kasputys founded Global Insight, Inc. in March 2001 to join together the world’s premier economic information and consulting firms, consisting of Data Resources (DRI) and WEFA (formerly Wharton Economic Forecasting Associates). Over the ensuing years, he acquired and integrated eight additional companies providing economic and business information. He served as Chairman, President and CEO until the sale of Global Insight to IHS, Inc. on October 10, 2008. Dr. Kasputys now serves as Chairman of IHS Global Insight
Dr. Kasputys also serves as the chairman the IHS Advisory Board, which recommends innovative approaches for the development and integration of IHS business units to provide clients with better products and services. The IHS Advisory Board investigates and advises on opportunities to enter new markets, introduce new products and services, and improve the IHS competitive position, either through internal development or acquisition. In addition, Dr. Kasputys is a charter member of the Advisory Council for IHS Global Insight’s Center of Excellence for Forecasting, Modeling and Computation.
In 1996, Dr. Kasputys founded Decision Economics, Inc. with noted economist Dr. Allen Sinai, where he continues as Chairman.
Kasputys was chairman, president, and CEO of Primark Corporation from 1987 to 2000. He transformed this New York Stock Exchange company from a $1.7 billion diversified energy company into a leading global provider of financial and economic information. In September 2000, Kasputys successfully completed the merger of Primark with Thomson Financial and was chairman of Thomson Financial until his founding of Global Insight. Prior to Primark, Kasputys served as executive vice president of McGraw-Hill. From 1977 to 1984, Kasputys held positions at Data Resources, culminating in his election as president and chief executive officer.
From 1972 to 1977, Kasputys served in the U.S. Department of Commerce, rising to the position of Assistant Secretary. He was also Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Maritime Administration and worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam conflict. He was Deputy Director of the White House task force formed to deal with the Arab oil embargo in 1973, and subsequently participated in the founding of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Kasputys holds both master’s and doctor’s degrees from Harvard University, and serves as a director on a number of boards. He is the Co-Chairman of the U.S.-based Committee for Economic Development, a leading business group that develops and promotes policies to improve economic growth.
Dr. Venkat Shastri, Director
Dr. Shastri was appointed to the PCN Board of Directors when he took over as President and CEO in April of 2006. He is a world recognized leader in the fields of intelligent automation, control and robotics. He comes to PCN Technology, Inc. from Palomar Technologies where he oversaw the designing, building, integration and support of high-precision technologies needed to assemble complex packages with the highest accuracy and reliability. Dr. Shastri has held positions as Senior Director of Engineering and Product Development at KLA-Tencor; one of the world’s leading suppliers of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. He spent five years with SRI International, the leading research institute as director of robotics and intelligent automation and senior research scientist. Respected for his research in artificial muscles and bio-automation, his scientific and academic background includes Engineer for the Mars Pathfinder project, research scientist at Yale University, member of the technical staff at the Caltech Jet Propulsion laboratory, and research consultant professor at Stanford University. He received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and has a Ph.D in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
