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Ron Lachman, Co-founder and Investor
At CenterGate®, Ron serves as a motivator and leader with the dual role of mentor/role model to the CenterGate scientists and manager for business development. A specialist in OEM/ISV software licensing business models, his track record and history of success in technology companies between startup and mid-life (<$20M) is invaluable.
At heart, Ron is a networking and systems software entrepreneur who began his life as a "Technology Angel" about 10 years ago following the sale of his consulting group Lachman Associates to Eastman Kodak's Interactive Systems subsidiary in 1989 (deal value roughly $20M). This was resultant to his role as a joint developer of NFS™ with Sun Microsystems, and the creation of Lachman Streams TCP™ that became bundled with the Unix™ operating system.
CenterGate also benefits from Ron's diverse consulting experience. Following the sale of Lachman Associates to Kodak, he served as the Executive Vice President at Interactive Systems Corp, heading that business unit for Kodak for four years. He is a co-founder of Praxsys, the developers of the WABI product which emulates Windows on Unix, and sold Praxsys to Sun Microsystems in 1992.
Ever the entrepreneur, Ron reincarnated Lachman Technology to pursue new product ideas in networking products, data archival and storage management. Lachman Technology/Associates licensed roughly 4 million copies of networking protocols (mostly in the Unix OEM marketplace), and was a technology leader in hierarchical storage management. Legent Corporation acquired Lachman Technology in 1994 (deal value $30M gain), and Ron became vice president for Open Systems strategy before leaving in 1995 to co-found, co-fund and build the management team of a number of networking or software related companies. Computer Associates acquired Legent in 1995.
Ron currently serves as a senior advisor/board member capacity to thirteen different technology companies in the fields of distributed computing and Internet commerce.
He resides with his wife and family in Chicago, enjoying life in the midwest and supporting many charitable organizations and special programs (http://www.lachman.org/donations.html).
