Alain Simon Rossmann (born 1956) is a

serial entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

who was a member of the early Apple Macintosh team and who went on to found or co-found nine startups, of which three went public (Radius, C-Cube Microsystems, Unwired Planet), three were acquired (EO by AT&T, Vudu by Walmart, PSS Systems by IBM), and two were dissolved (

Zonbu Zonbu was a technology company that markets a computing platform which combines a web-centric service, a small form factor PC, and an open source based software architecture. Zonbu was founded by Alain Rossmann (previously Founder and CEO of ...

, Klip). The ninth is his current company, Machinify.

Education

In 1979, Rossmann graduated at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

with a BS in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

. He completed an MS in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in 1981 and an MBA from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1983.

Career

Rossmann was head evangelist at the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

division of

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

from 1983 to 1986. He worked with

Joanna Hoffman Joanna Karine Hoffman (born July 27, 1955) is a Polish-American marketing executive. She was one of the original members of both the Apple Computer Macintosh team and the NeXT team. At the time she began at Apple Computer, the Mac was "still a r ...

and the couple subsequently married. Next, he founded

Radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

, a company that built Macintosh peripherals. He was vice-president of marketing and sales from 1986 to 1989. Its

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

was in 1990. He was vice-president of operations of

C-Cube Microsystems C-Cube Microsystems was an early company in video compression technology as well as the implementation of that technology into semiconductor integrated circuits and systems. C-Cube was the first company to deliver on the market opportunity prese ...

, a leading developer of

MPEG The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...

integrated circuits An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

, from 1989 to 1992. Its

was in 1994. It was acquired by

LSI Logic LSI Logic Corporation, an American company founded in Milpitas, California, was a pioneer in the ASIC and EDA industries. It evolved over time to design and sell semiconductors and software that accelerated storage and networking in data center ...

in 2001. Moving into pen computing, Rossmann was CEO of EO from 1992 to 1994. It built and marketed the

EO Personal Communicator The EO is an early commercial tablet computer that was created by Eo, Inc. (later acquired by AT&T Corporation), and released in April 1993. Eo (Latin for "I go") is the hardware spin-out of GO. Officially named the AT&T EO Personal Communicat ...

. It was acquired by

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

in 1993. With his colleague

Celeste Baranski Celeste Suzanne Baranski is an American electronic engineer, entrepreneur, and executive who helped create several pioneering electronic devices including early versions of the tablet computer. Baranski, with her colleague Alain Rossmann, won the ...

, he won the Discover Award from

Discover Magazine ''Discover'' is an American general audience science magazine launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It has been owned by Kalmbach Publishing since 2010. History Founding ''Discover'' was created primarily through the efforts of ''Time'' mag ...

in 1993 for this product. In an early smartphone development, he was founder and CEO of

Unwired Planet Openwave (formerly software.com, phone.com, and Libris, Inc) is a division of Enea. It provides video traffic management and 5G mobile products. Two of Openwave's former products launched as private companies; Openwave Mobility and Openwave ...

(later renamed Phone.com, then

Openwave Openwave (formerly software.com, phone.com, and Libris, Inc) is a division of Enea. It provides video traffic management and 5G mobile products. Two of Openwave's former products launched as private companies; Openwave Mobility and Openwave ...

, then back to Unwired Planet) from 1994 to 2001. It developed the

Wireless Application Protocol Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that use the protocol. Introduced in 1999, WAP achieve ...

for smartphone

microbrowsers A mobile browser is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimized to display Web content most effectively on small screens on portable devices. Mobile browser software must be smal ...

. Its IPO was in 1999. After Unwired Planet, he was founder and CEO then chairman of PSS Systems, an information lifecycle governance company, from June 2001 to October 2010. It was acquired by IBM in 2010. His online movie service, Vudu, was acquired by Walmart. He was founder and CEO from June 2005 to March 2010. Next Rossmann was founder and chairman of Zonbu, subscription-based personal computer maker, from April 2006 to December 2007. From March 2011 to January 2015 he worked at Klip, Inc., a social video start up, as founder and CEO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossmann, Alain 1956 births Living people École Polytechnique alumni 20th-century French businesspeople Stanford University alumni French emigrants to the United States 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople École des Ponts ParisTech alumni Apple Inc. people