Ken Jacobsen Resume:
1433 Kokoma Rd
Fremont, CA 94539
510-490-7095
Mr. Jacobsen has been in the
microcomputer industry since 1978 when he founded Microsystems Training
Institute in southern California. MTI
performed end-user and dealer training for companies such as Preachtree,
MicroPro and Ashton-Tate. From those
early experiences, Mr. Jacobsen joined
Osborne Computers as employee forty-nine.
He was the original software acquisition manager and was later promoted
to International Software Manager.
After Osborne, he joined Award Software as a start-up and served as
their International VP and later as the VP of Business Development. In 1982, between Osborne and Award he founded Connexus as a consulting
vehicle. He revitalized Connexus after
he left Award and has been consulting ever since. In 1989 he became an Associate Consultant for SRI, International, where he served in
their Pocket Intelligence Program as a specialist in hand-held computers,
wireless communications, and emerging technologies. In 1993, he was recruited by Hewlett
Packard to serve as their licensing agent for their Serial InfraRed
patents. To facilitate this task, he organized the InfraRed Data Association
(IrDA) to create a standard around their technology. He personally recruited over 70 members by
June, 1994, and licensed over fifty OEMs including every major PC manufacturer
world wide with the HP technology. Today, IrDAhas over 200 members and is the
established standards body for IR technologies.
Other representative clients
served by Mr. Jacobsen include:
§
Atari/Poqet/Inmac/Telex: Third Party vendor program development
§ AT&T/DCA/MicroPro/Enable/Spectrix/Pearlsoft: Developing business models for new products
§ Fujitsu: Contracted to organize the PCMCIA— he helped organized the charter meetings of that association and recruited PC and software participants to join with the semiconductor companies.
§
Phoenix,Microlytics, Holographics: Consulting on International marketing
§
Samsung: Developing
world wide marketing plan, Member Technical Advisory Board
§
AMP, Temic, Kodak, NEC, Cirrus Logic: Designing infrared devices, market strategies
§
HP/Microsoft;
Sharp: Software protocols for InfraRed systems.
§
HP, Lockheed-Martin, Toshiba: Patent and technology
licensing
§
MarQlin, evVia, OIC (currently 2003) Start-up companies: Business
Development
Through his various
projects, Mr. Jacobsen has provided consulting services or marketing support to
over 100 major companies world wide and has an extensive network of personal
contacts. Much of his work has been
international with strong connections in Asia, South America, Europe and the
Eastern Europe
Mr. Jacobsen has produced a
number of marketing studies including an analysis of PCMCIA market opportunities published by SRI (1993), an analysis
of IrDA market opportunities published
by Dataquest 1994. He was Editor In Chief of the book, Launchng Your
Software Businesss In America (2002) published by the Finnish government
(Tekes). He has authored books in other fields, including most recently (2002) Eating
to Save the Earth, an ecology book published by TenSpeed Press.
Connexus manages a joint venture with Toshiba to develop and bring to market a new genre of
software products—meetingware, under the name, SPANworks. SpanWorks is
half owned by Toshiba and half by the Connexus management team.
Currently, Mr. Jacobsen is involved as a Director of the Global
Software Program at Oulu University, Oulu Finland. This government sponsored
program is training Finnish Software companies in American style
entrepreneuralism and helping them expand into the American market. He has
worked with over 60 Finnish companies as part of this program. Simultaneously, Mr. Jacobsen is consulting
with a number of high tech startups, including MarQlin, OIC and enVia. His
contributions include Business Plan Development, Strategic Planning and
Marketing.
Positions:
1969-1976 United Presbyterian Church-- Pastor
1975-1978 Educational Services Association-- VP Fundraising
1977-1979 Microsystems Training Institute-- President
1980-1982 Osborne Computers--Software Acquisitions Manager
International Software Manager
Negotiated
OEM distribution contracts with all major software vendors. Prepared programs
for international markets. Established international sales and support
structures.
1984-1987 Award Software- VP International Sales and Marketing
VP Business Development
Established
international distribution network in eleven countries which accounted for 53%
of revenues. Established company as
major supplier of firmware technology. Established large base of over 500 OEM
contracts world wide.
Education
1964-1968 California State University, Hayward BA
1969-1971 Princeton Theological Seminary- M.Div
1976-1977 University San Diego-- towards M.A., Education