~ Board of Directors ~
Click on the above link to read the candidate biographies.
Directors listing is current, new officers will be elected March 25 2010. Each members' name is an email hyper-link to them. Please feel free to contact them if you have any questions or concerns. 
Birket Foster
- Chairman
(2009 - 2011) Birket met his first HP3000 in 1974, 3 years before founding MBFoster Associates Limited as a consulting company. Birket was influential in the early years of several companies Quasar (became Cognos), Cole & Van Sickle (became Protos), and The Type-ahead Engine company (became Telamon). He has been involved with HP User shows since 1981. His company became a reseller for various utility software products. Reselling PC2622 (now Reflection) lead to a need to extract data for spreadsheet. Birket found such a product became a reseller and a member of the design team. In 1989 MBFoster purchased the DataExpress product from IMACS plus the assets and offices, and employees in Seattle. In 1992 MBFoster introduced the ODBCLink driver as part of the DataExpress product, and in 1996 licensed a Special Edition to HP (ODBCLink/SE). Birket is the chair of SIGSoftVend and the owner of M.B. Foster Associates Limited. 
Keith Wadsworth
- Vice Chairman
(2010 - 2012) Keith Wadsworth is President/CEO and owner of ORBiT Software Group, Inc. and ORBiT Software UK limited. ORBiT Software is also an equity partner in Resource3000. ORBiT Software is synonymous with BACKUP+/iX and continues to support a large client base on MPE, and we continue to welcome new customers. As ORBiT is fully committed to supporting our customers beyond 2010 we have a very sincere interest for the future of and the usage of the MPE source code. It is in the continued interest and support of our MPE customers that I volunteer my services and support to the Open MPE Board of Directors.
Tracy's first encounter with a computer was while serving in the U.S. Navy as a Cryptologic Technician in 1970's, learning how to code lighted octal displays so the system could boot and access the "drum" drive. His first encounter with the HP3000 was in 1984 at Hughes Aircraft Company as an Operator and it has been a love-affair ever since. He earned a Bachelors in Geography (of all things) in 1985 and moved on to application programming in Powerhouse. He also stayed in the U.S. Naval Reserve and retired after thirty years (and one month) in 2006. But his true calling is still System Operations and Management. Tracy has managed several HP3000 sites over the years, primarily in a manufacturing environment using MANMAN. As a result, he has learned the fine art of orchestrating varying 3rd party applications to work together on the HP. He can often be found on the HP3000-L list server offering advice on just about any topic. He is quite enthusiastic about the prospects for OpenMPE and foresees a viable future for the MPE operating system past 2008 ... and beyond! 
Alan Tibbetts
(2009 - 2011) My first experience with Hewlett-Packard computers was in 1974 on RTE-II and RTE-III systems used in an aerospace company, designing hardware and software for various products. Over the years I went on to use all the RTE systems, participating as an HP employee and consultant in the design of the most modern members of the product line. During my time at HP, I was a user of various MPE systems and worked closely with my peers to create factory control systems with networks of MPE and RTE machines. I became involved in Interex in 1988, eventually serving on the board of directors of that organization. My current employer manufactures replacements for Data General, DEC, and HP minicomputers, so I occasionally find myself still working with RTE-II systems thirty years later. 
Tony Tibbenham
(2009 - 2011) My IT background goes back to 1982 and covers roles from database design through programming, training and support at sites as diverse as local council offices and power plants. This experience included 10 years as IT Manager covering all sysadmin, programmer and DBA for three HP-UX servers. In 2006 I was hired as IT Manager for a company that ran an HP 918RX server running MPE because my CV said HP-UX and that was declared 'close enough' to HP MPE. Since 2006 I have grown to appreciate the stability of MPE on HP hardware. The box had not been looked at for the last 10 years: It just kept running, provided it had power. My remit was to retire the applications running on this old HP server: It took over 2 years to find and deliver a reliable replacement system. Our MPE server is now doing 'lookup only' enquiries into decades of records but I remain keen to see MPE remain available and provide a European voice on the Open MPE board. 
Jack Connor
(2010 - 2012) My introduction to the 3000 was in 1974 with the CX (#27, I believe) at Sangamon State University where we developed the SSLC-based UT200 emulator and converted a batch IBM student system to a hybrid on-line system. I joined HP as a systems engineer/systems specialist in performance, networking, and networking performance in 1978. During that time I was privileged to meet and work with MPE legends (at least to me) such as Fred White, Ted Workman, Len Crowley, Gerry Wade, Gerry Crawford, Paul Primmer, and many others. In 1983 I founded InfoWorks, Inc and developed OmniSpooler, InfoNet, and OmniMonitor. After merging with Carolian in 1987 and spending a year as the COO for Carolian US, I resumed consulting and project management with InfoWorks. Most recent HP3000 contributions have been managing the HP MPE Tier 2 Reactive support team for HP's internal systems; since 2004, I have been the MPE Practice Manager for Abtech Support Services. As InfoWorks, I'm still pursuing some projects, such as how to modify the network spooler to support the new HP laser printers. |
