Press Releases

Bill Robertson Joins bom.com as Senior Vice President of
Sales & Services

Manufacturing Industry Veteran Brings Proven Ability to Grow Revenues in Emerging Software Markets

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 8, 2002 — bom.com today announced the appointment of Bill Robertson as senior vice president of sales and services. With 20 years of experience and expertise in a variety of management and sales roles, Robertson brings a talent for shepherding emerging software technology and a proven record of sales success. Robertson will lead the development of sales and distribution strategy and spearhead major accounts to drive adoption of the bom.com application, an online product lifecycle management (PLM) solution.

“Bill has an incredible record of successfully launching new products-he led the creation and development of the 21XX series at KLA, growing the division’s annual revenues to $750 million,” said Michael Topolovac, chief executive officer of bom.com. “Companies in the market for a PLM solution have grown accustomed to being underserved by the big, slower-moving players that have dominated the arena. Part of Bill’s job is to spread the message that spending lots of time and money on a PLM application doesn’t guarantee a superior product: bom.com is rapidly deployed, cost-effective, simple-to-use, and at the same time better than the client-server systems that people used to settle for. Bill is the right person to evangelize this-he combines rock-solid experience at every level of the design and manufacturing process with a clear vision of how to communicate our value to customers.”

Before joining bom.com, Robertson led the development of a web-based design environment for OrCAD software at Cadence Design Systems, the world’s largest provider of electronic design automation (EDA) products and services. During his time at Cadence, Robertson created and oversaw the development of Activeparts, an online information portal for electrical engineers, an innovation that later received a Smithsonian Laureate Award for leadership in information technology. Previously, Robertson founded Q Point Technology. As CEO, he guided that company as it created a new market for component information systems (CIS) to address the electronic product needs of mid-sized companies. Robertson sold Q Point to OrCAD (now part of Cadence) in 1997. At KLA Instruments, a provider of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries (now KLA-Tencor Corporation), Robertson oversaw the development of several projects in imaging systems, including the 21XX product series. Robertson holds a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Santa Clara and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Davis.

As a member of the bom.com executive management team, Robertson will report directly to CEO Topolovac.

About Arena Solutions
Arena Solutions is the leading provider of on–demand (SaaS) product lifecycle management solutions for manufacturing companies of all sizes. As the only true on–demand, secure Internet–based PLM service, Arena PLM provides a superior alternative to complicated, lengthy and expensive traditional PLM software deployments. Through its award–winning service, Arena enables product manufacturers and their global supply chains to streamline outsourcing, improve operational efficiencies, and speed time–to–market. Arena PLM has been adopted by more than 15,000 users across companies at all stages of development, including industry leaders Foundry Networks, Color Kinetics, Intuit, Sierra Wireless, Align Technology and more.

Arena Solutions’ market–changing approach to PLM has received significant recognition in the industry, including Manufacturing Business Technology’s Top 40 Emerging Vendors, the Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100, Industry Week’s “Technology of the Year – Notable Innovators” and Start Magazine’s “Hottest” Companies.

Founded in February 2000, Arena Solutions is headquartered in Foster City, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.arenasolutions.com.

Contact:
Cindi Goodsell
cgoodsell@arenasolutions.com
1.510.479.9015

Arena PLM is a trademark of Arena Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names are the property of their respective holders.