Software group to be led by well-credentialed veteran - Portland Business Journal:

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Wade replaces Sandy Hogan, who left the organization at the end of Hogan left the associatio forhealth reasons. Hogann was highly respected duringher two-and-a-half-year tenurs as association president. She is credited with creating a growing and vibrant organization with the critical mass to trulyt servethe state's software Wade was serving as interim president while the association's search committee looked for a After filling that role for a while, Wade decidesd he liked the job and applied for it.
"Larry' s quite an extraordinary individual," said John Cimral, chairr of the association and vice president and generalo manager in chargeof Intersolv's locakl division. "We were all delighted when he decidex to throw his hat inthe "Larry commanded the respect of people he has worked with," added Charles Kawasaki, association past chair and vice presidentf of product development at The Palace, a local internet-basexd firm.
But don't assume Wade's selection was guaranteed just because of his Board memberEileen Boerger, a former Mentor Graphics vice president who is now starting The Wildwood Group consulting business, said the association receivexd nearly 50 applications and interviewed close to a doze n strong candidates. The searcu committee was looking for a candidate with strong leadership skills and experience in the softwar e andtechnology industry. "Larry just had both of those in Boerger said. Boerger said Wade was helped by the search committee's familiarity with him, but he still needed to cleadr all the hurdles the othee candidates faced.
Wade said he enjoye d his consulting business because it allowe d him to work with a handful ofdifferent but, after seven years, something was missing. "It'xs not like being in charge of yourown business." At the software association, he saw an opportunity to get thingds done and work with a strong In a sense, the software associatioj gives him the best of both worlds--a n organization to run and involvement with many differentt companies. Wade said his goal is to run the softwaree association for perhapsthree years. "The kind of organizatioj the Software Association of Oregon is need to evolve and the peoples will needto evolve," he said.
Looking at the job from his perspectivre asan individual, the experience will help his careerf down the road. "Ultimately, this is an extraordinary networkingg job," he said. Wade started his nearly 30-yead technology career as an and later signed on as one of Sequent ComputeSystems Inc.'s 17 original employees. He's workes with Intel Corp., Aptec Computefr Systems and Digital Equipment In recentyears he's focusede on marketing. He plans to continue that focus as head of thesoftwarw association. "What is your customer base, and what does it is his mantra.
In the case of the softwar e industry, its needs are diverse and Wade sees keepingh in touch with those needs and offerint services such as professional education programs as aprimaryh challenge. Another association priority is addressingthe industry's critical need for traine d personnel, Wade said. The industry is driven by recruitment of highly skilled people atall levels, not just The master's of software engineering program, which Hogan and the associatioj were instrumental in developing, is a start.
But, Wade the industry also needs to be lookingat master'sw of business administration and continuinvg education programs to fill its insatiable need for talented The association is putting fortgh a proposal to create a more comprehensive informatioj base on Oregon's software industry and the advantages the state offers software That information base would then be made available to associationj members. Because of its size, the Portland area gets the bulk of Wade intends to bring other areas of the statew intothe picture, he said. That will require an enormou s effort from association he added.
Currently, the association has 200 very activ e volunteers and it will need to broaden those ranks while ensuring thatit doesn'ft subject volunteers to Wade continued. The association itself also needs to It made great stridexsunder Hogan, with membership growing from 300 to 600 and sponsorshipsd going from 14 to 50. But, Wade that's just scratching the surface of an industryg that has atleasr 1,500 companies statewide and maybes as many as 3,000 On a more organization-specific level, Wade wantws to see the association beef-u its Web site, .