Michael Topolovac

Michael Topolovac co-founded Arena Solutions with Eric Larkin, CTO, in 2000 with the vision of providing cost-effective, on-demand product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions to manufacturers of all sizes and their global supply chains. Michael served as Arena's CEO from inception until January 2008.

Prior to co-founding Arena, Michael founded and served for ten years as chief executive officer of Light & Motion Industries (LMI), a leading manufacturer of underwater video, photo and lighting products for consumer markets. He led LMI’s evolution from a supplier of underwater lights to a manufacturer of a full line of high performance underwater imaging products, to capture 60% of the market. As CEO of LMI, Michael experienced the pain of having to use expensive, complex enterprise software to run the product development arm of the business. This personal frustration was the motivation and inspiration behind him developing a custom PLM application that has run LMI’s operations for the past ten years. This system became the prototype for the Arena PLM product.

An avid scuba diver and ardent still photographer, Michael has traveled, dived and photographed throughout the world. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering/product design from Stanford University.