Roy T. Sanford, chief marketing officer, Stratus Technologies Inc.
Sanford
When Stratus Technologies of Maynard reorganized its marketing efforts, they found someone with plenty of experience to take the lead. Roy T. Sanford was a senior executive at EMC for 14 years.
Age: 54
Residence: Sudbury
Family: Married 27 years, three children 15, 19, 23
Education: Master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a master of science degree in operations research from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics from Drexel University
Previous job: EMC Corp., vice president coordinating the company's entry into the software-as-as-service (SaaS) business.
Start date at new job: Nov. 2
Q. How are you settling in at your new office?
A. It's been very enjoyable and very busy. I spend a lot of time meeting and listening to people - employees, customers, partners - with some traveling and more to come. I'm familiarizing myself with the Stratus business model, products and opportunities.
Q. What's the biggest surprise you've had in starting the job?
A. There is an astounding breadth and depth of knowledge around technology for IT uptime and systems availability in the Stratus employee base. Also, Stratus customers are fiercely loyal; many have been active customers for decades. The quality of the workforce has a great deal to do with that customer satisfaction.
Q. What challenges do you see in your new position?
A. The quickly evolving technology cycle is driving rapid change. It affects customer buying decisions in ways we need to understand and address. I'm excited by the prospect of reinventing availability solutions to protect customers' critical business applications.
Q. How different is this job from your previous position?
A. The company is certainly different - smaller, with highly specialized and differentiated value propositions for customers. My prior experience in marketing, product management, business development, strategic alliances, and general management, involving both hardware and software application solutions, is spot on for my CMO role here. Applying that experience and playing a key role leveraging the company's many assets to drive profitable growth is something I am looking forward to.
Q. How close is this to what you imagined in high school you'd end up doing?
A. Not very. I thought back then my career would be applied mathematics and science.
Q. Where's the best place to get lunch near your new location?
A. At home. I live only three miles from the office.
Q. What do you hope to be doing 10 years from now?
A. Taking a very successful business venture, with more employees and many more customers, to yet another higher plateau.
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