Press Releases

Four Industry Heavyweights Tapped to Join the bom.com
Board of Advisors

New Members Bring Expertise in Marketing and Sales Strategy, Collaborative Applications and Network Administration

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., January 16, 2002 — bom.com, the first company to provide web-native software that enables collaborative product development around a bill-of-materials (BOM) framework, today announced the addition of four new members to its board of advisors: Anne Bonaparte, management consultant, co-founder and former senior vice president, global sales and business development, Buzzsaw.com; Amar Hanspal, co-founder and former vice president, RedSpark Inc.; Chris Badger, sales director, Docent Inc.; and John Caruso, network architect and system administration consultant, former director, system and network administration, CNET.

“We strongly believe that businesses see tremendous returns when they engage in collaborative product development,” said Michael Topolovac, chief executive officer and co-founder of bom.com. “This message has resonated in the marketplace and helped fuel our momentum. Now, as we expand our outreach and look to build on this progress, we welcome the expertise of our new advisors. They too have been successful in evangelizing new concepts and new products, and we expect to benefit immensely from their experience.”

As a member of the advisory board, Anne Bonaparte will offer expertise on product marketing and vertical market strategies. At Buzzsaw.com, an online software provider, she managed international operations, business development, sales and customer care. Autodesk recently acquired Buzzsaw.com for its cutting-edge collaborative and print management tools for the building industry. Previously, Bonaparte led Autodesk’s Design Team Solutions Group to deliver collaborative solutions to the design industry. Her other experience includes management positions with Bain & Company, Hewlett Packard and IBM. Bonaparte holds a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University.

Amar Hanspal brings formidable industry experience in marketing to product designers. Most recently, Hanspal was co-founder and vice president of marketing and business development at RedSpark Inc., an Autodesk venture that provided the manufacturing industry with hosted applications spanning product development, direct-materials sourcing and the sales of engineered goods. Previously Hanspal held a number of positions at Autodesk, including senior director of the Autodesk Point A team and director of marketing for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. He holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Bombay in India.

Chris Badger will offer bom.com advice on growing a sales infrastructure and building field relationships. Badger leads the sales team and shapes the channel strategy for gForce Central, a suite of rapid eLearning content management and delivery solutions, which was recently acquired by Docent Inc. Previously, Badger managed the Compaq, Hewlett Packard and other major accounts at customer relationship management (CRM) software provider Amdocs.com (formerly named Clarify). In that role he grew revenue from Compaq by 486 percent in two years. Additional experience includes sales positions at Quantum Corporation, a provider of data protection and network storage systems. Badger holds a master’s degree in engineering management at Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in engineering sciences from Dartmouth College.

John Caruso brings extensive experience in system administration, networking and programming for technology companies. Since the fall of 2000, Caruso has been working with bom.com to define and build its application network. Prior to bom.com, Caruso provided consulting services in system and network administration to Sephora.com and Eluxury.com. Previously, as director of system and network administration at CNET, he developed, built and oversaw the technical operations for all CNET websites - including News.com, Snap.com and Computers.com - which together served approximately 10 million pages per day. In addition, Caruso has held positions in system administration and programming with ADP Claims Solutions Group and the University of Maryland. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Maryland.

Bonaparte, Hanspal, Badger and Caruso join 11 other members on the bom.com Board of Advisors, which includes industry leaders in the fields of collaborative commerce, online software, marketing and product development.

About Arena Solutions
Arena Solutions is the leading provider of on–demand (SaaS) product lifecycle management solutions for manufacturing companies of all sizes. As the only true on–demand, secure Internet–based PLM service, Arena PLM provides a superior alternative to complicated, lengthy and expensive traditional PLM software deployments. Through its award–winning service, Arena enables product manufacturers and their global supply chains to streamline outsourcing, improve operational efficiencies, and speed time–to–market. Arena PLM has been adopted by more than 15,000 users across companies at all stages of development, including industry leaders Foundry Networks, Color Kinetics, Intuit, Sierra Wireless, Align Technology and more.

Arena Solutions’ market–changing approach to PLM has received significant recognition in the industry, including Manufacturing Business Technology’s Top 40 Emerging Vendors, the Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100, Industry Week’s “Technology of the Year – Notable Innovators” and Start Magazine’s “Hottest” Companies.

Founded in February 2000, Arena Solutions is headquartered in Foster City, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.arenasolutions.com.

Contact:
Cindi Goodsell
cgoodsell@arenasolutions.com
1.510.479.9015

Arena PLM is a trademark of Arena Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names are the property of their respective holders.