Work Experience

Consultanties as Thought Leader and Thinking Partner

  • 2018 European Processor Initiative (EPI): I assisted one of the partners in the EPI consortium with review of proposals and evaluation of critical technology.
  • 2013- Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope: As a consultant to Cambridge University, I contributed to technical, vendor related and process oriented aspects of engineering for the SKA.
  • 2014 Department of Science and Technology (DST) South Africa: I evaluated proposals for the DST and assisted them brainstorming about critical initiatives. I brought new areas of focus to the annual CHPC conference.
  • 2011 - 2013 Exascale I/O Workgroup: I led a discussion group which developed influential ideas.
  • 2012-2014, EC Brussels: I served on the committee to create initial blueprints for the Horizon 2020 program’s HPC research initiatives.

Executive

Xyratex 2010-2013.

As Senior Vice President I was a member of the CEO’s executive board and directed software engineering, in a team of some 300 engineers, across many products, including:

  • ClusterStor’s product line
  • Grid RAID for Lustre
  • Secure Lustre
  • MERO/Colibri Object Storage System
  • Enclosure Firmware

I introduced architecture and software development processes. I managed outsourcing relationships for software and was involved in the selection of oversearch design and manufacturing of hardware.

When it became apparent Xyratex was going to be acquired (by Seagate) I left the company.

SUN Microsysmstem, Vice President 2007-2008

While reporting to the Executive VP of Engineering (John Fowler) and working with the CEO (Jonathan Schwarz) I worked on strategic projects such as:

  • the integration of Cluster File Systems into SUN
  • architecture of a unified approach to SUN storage
  • ports of products from Linux to Solaris and vice versa

In many of these projects I worked with Jeff Bonwick and Bill Moore. I visited many customers around the world and worked on proposals for HPC installations with Andreas Bechtolsheim. When it became apparent SUN was going to be acquired (by Oracle) I left the company.

CEO for 5 of my startups, (and CTO for one).

I led the architecture of products, managed early customer relations and technical marketing. I leveraged processes from Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute. I was coached to gain executive skills, which became valuable as the company grew to around 130 people and 100 customers. I generally wrote white papers and course materials and delivered many technical lectures.

Academic

  • Academic 2015-: I interact with a few research groups on issues described on the project page. I give some 5 invited lectures annually, and frequently initiate discussions about open issues that have not received enough attention. I organize brainstorming meetings or small workshops about it. Sometimes I publish a refereed paper, and guide some graduate students. I work both with academic and industry researchers.
  • Senior Systems Scientist 1996-2000: I took over leadership of the Coda project in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University as a Senior Systems Faculty member. The project and one of my papers won an award, and the origins of two successful commercial products (InterMezzo and Lustre) were established.
  • Mathematician 1980-1996: I pursued an academic career until 1995. I published papers, had eight PhD students complete their thesis under me.