Robert J. Frankenberg (born 1947) is an American

computer engineer Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers ...

and business executive who served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of

Novell, Inc. Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi- platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Under the lea ...

from 1994 to 1996.

Life and career

Frankenberg spent much of his career at

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

(HP), starting there in 1969. While at HP, he earned a degree in

computer engineering Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers ...

from

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

in 1974 and completed the Stanford Executive Program at

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...

. In 1985 he was promoted to general manager of the Information Systems Group and made vice president in 1989. He led the revival of HP's

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

unit, and in 1991, he was promoted to group vice president of personal information products. He then moved to Novell in 1994, succeeding

Raymond Noorda Raymond John "Ray" Noorda (19 June 1924 – 9 October 2006) was a U.S. computer businessman. He was CEO of Novell between 1982 and 1994. He also served as chairman of Novell until he was replaced in 1994. Early life Noorda was born in ...

.Fisher, Lawrence M. (April 6, 1994). Longtime Hewlett Executive Named Novell Chief. ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' He spent much of his tenure divesting properties acquired by Noorda in a bid to compete with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

. He sold Wordperfect and

Quattropro Quattro Pro is a spreadsheet program developed by Borland and now sold by Corel, most often as part of Corel's WordPerfect Office suite. Characteristics Historically, Quattro Pro used keyboard commands close to those of Lotus 1-2-3. While i ...

Corel Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo (pronounced like "all you do"), is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation ( ; from the abbreviation ...

and Unix Systems Laboratories to

Santa Cruz Operation The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. (usually known as SCO, pronounced either as individual letters or as a word) was an American software company, based in Santa Cruz, California, that was best known for selling three Unix operating system variants ...

, taking huge losses. Analysts stated that Novell missed opportunities to capitalize on client–server computing and emerging

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

-based technologies.Fisher, Lawrence M. (August 30, 1996)
Flummoxed by the Internet, Head of Novell Resigns.
''

'' In 1997 he became president and CEO of Encanto Networks, Inc. He has been a management consultant with NetVentures since 1996. Frankenberg has served on several corporate boards, including Nuance Communications, Inc., Daw Technologies, Inc., and

Scansoft, Inc. Nuance Communications, Inc. is an American multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, that markets speech recognition and artificial intelligence software. Nuance merged with its compe ...

He has been on the boards of Electroglas, Inc. since 1993,

Caere Corporation Nuance Communications, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, that markets speech recognition and artificial intelligence software. Nu ...

since 1996,

Secure Computing Corporation Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) was a public company that developed and sold computer security appliances and hosted services to protect users and data. McAfee acquired the company in 2008. The company also developed filtering systems used ...

since 1996,

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drive ...

since 1999, and

Sqlstream SQLstream is a distributed, SQL standards-compliant plus Java stream processing platform. SQLstream, Inc. is based in San Francisco, California and was launched in 2009 by Damian Black, Edan Kabatchnik and Julian Hyde, author of the open source Mo ...

since 2011. He served as board chair and acting CEO of Kinzan, Inc. from 1999 to 2006. In 2013, he was appointed as a board member to Polycom, a broadband service company, along with Martha Helena Bejar. He has served as a trustee of

Westminster College, Salt Lake City Westminster College is a private college in Salt Lake City, Utah. The college comprises four schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, the School of Education, and the School of Nursing and Health Sci ...

, since 1997.

References

External links

Robert J. Frankenberg profile
via

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

* 1947 births Living people American computer businesspeople San Jose State University alumni Novell NetWare Novell people 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-compu-bio-stub