Mark Burgess

Chairman, Founder and CTO

Mark Burgess is Professor of Network and System Administration at Oslo University College. He was the first professor internationally with this title. Burgess obtained a PhD in Theoretical Physics also from Newcastle University, for which he received the Runcorn Prize. His current research interests include the behaviour of computers as dynamic systems and applying models from physics to describe computer behaviour.

Mark Burgess is the author of the cfengine software. He has made contributions to the theory of the field of automation and policy based management, including the idea of operator convergence and promise theory. Mark is a well-known personality in IT management and frequent speaker in the IT management industry.

Mark Burgess holds a first class honours degree in Physics from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and a PhD in Theoretical Physics also from Newcastle. Burgess has received a number of awards including the SAGE 2003 Professional Contribution Award: "For groundbreaking work in systems administration theory and individual contributions to the field".

Thomas Ryd

CEO

Thomas Ryd is Chief Executive Officer of Cfengine. Ryd has worked with technology start-up companies especially within the IT-industry for a number of years, and has served on the Board of Directors at a variety of companies over the past 8 years, like XT Software AS, the music creator software company behind energyXT, Searchdaimon AS, one of few providers in the world offering true core search technology, Encap AS that provides banks and enterprises a user friendly and secure way to perform user authentification with mobile phones, and finally IDTEQ AS, a seurity company delivering new breed of alarms based on artifical intelligence.

Prior to Cfengine, Thomas Ryd was Incubator Manager at Oslo Innovation Center, a leading Scandinavian start-up incubator, and Investment Manager at Springfondet, a Norwegian seed-fund. Ryd has worked for a Norwegian Governmental Agency in London, assisting Norwegian companies expanding to Great Britain. His first job as a programmer at Telenor ASA, Norway's biggest telecom provider, gave him valuable insight to the life of a computer engineer. Thomas Ryd also co-founded Smartlink AS, an unsuccessful mobile-service company, failing to convince a rigid music industry the possiblities of digital distribution.

Ryd enjoys the dynamics and challenges connected to growing companies and believes people's creativity and commitment are keys to success.

Thomas Ryd holds a Master in Administration, specializing in Information Management, from the Norwegian School of Management and Universitiaet St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Bob Whirley

President and COO

Bob Whirley is President and Chief Operating Officer of Cfengine. He joined Cfengine in January 2009, and he is responsible for leading all company operations in North America. Whirley has nearly two decades in the technology industry, holding various leadership positions within fortune 500 and growth stage companies.

Prior to Cfengine, Whirley was Chief Operating Officer at Persystent Technologies, a PC Life Cycle Management company. His responsibilities included development, marketing, sales, channels, and customer support.

At Persystent, Whirley accelerated the company's growth by increasing 2006 revenue by more than 100%, reduced operational costs, and developed a channel program that delivered value to customers. Before Persystent, Whirley was Senior Vice President WW Sales for eEye Digital Security, a Network Security company where he was credited with growing year over year sales by more than 100% annually. Whirley has held various senior management positions with Computer Associates, Cabletron Systems and Xchange Inc.

Whirley received a Bachelors of Arts in Communications from the University of Southern Maine. He also attended the MIT, Sloan School of Management Executive Program

Sam Rodd

General Counsel

As General Counsel, Sam Rodd oversees all legal matters, including corporate governance, intellectual property, contracts, and corporate transactions. He is a former Vice President and General Counsel at Computer Associates and for over 18 years has been practicing law specializing in computer technology contracts and issues.

He has provided legal consulting services to numerous clients, among them Citibank, Colgate Palmolive, Sterling Commerce and Chemical Bank, as well as several software portfolio companies of Insight Venture Partners, a venture capital firm based in New York City, and OpenView Venture Partners, a venture capital firm headquartered in Boston.

Rodd is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University Law School.

The Board of Directors

• Mark Burgess:
  Professor at Oslo College University, CTO and Founder of Cfengine.
• Christen Krogh:
  Chief Development Officer, Opera Software
• Haavard Nord:
  CEO and Co-founder Trolltech (acquired by Nokia 2008)
• Alexander Woxen:
  Incubator Manager, Oslo Innovation Center

Technical Advisory Board

• Jon Henrik Bjørnstad:
  Senior Consultant in Unix/Linux administration, Oslo, Norway
• Alva Couch:
  Associate Professor at Tufts University, USA and secretary of the USENIX Association, Boston, USA
• Aeleen Frisch:
  Consultant and industry expert in Unix and Windows administration, Wallingford, USA
• Khanan Grauer:
  CEO of Investio, New York, USA
• Paul Krizak:
  Senior Systems Engineer, Advanced Micro Devices, Texas, USA
• Brendan Strejcek:
  Infrastructure architect and industry expert, Toronto, Canada