Robert J. Frankenberg is a widely-respected veteran of the technology industry. He is currently the owner of NetVentures, a management consulting firm focused on the high tech industry. Mr. Frankenberg was the Chairman, President, and CEO of Encanto Networks, a leading provider of eBusiness software and services to small business, from June 1997 to July 2000, when the company’s major business was sold to Avaya. Prior to his tenure at Encanto, Bob was the Chairman and CEO of Novell, the world’s largest networking software company, where he successfully led Novell through a major strategy change to focus the company on the network software business. He began his professional career in 1969 at Hewlett-Packard as a manufacturing technician and later became a design engineer, software designer, project manager, engineering and marketing executive, and general manager. Mr. Frankenberg ultimately served as Vice President and then as Group General Manager of the Personal Information Products Group, responsible for HP’s personal computer, server, networking, office software, calculator, and consumer product lines. Under his leadership, HP’s PC business rose from 26th to 7th in market share.
Mr. Frankenberg serves on the boards of several public companies, including: National Semiconductor, Nuance Communications, and Secure Computing; as well as start-up companies, BroadWeave and Sylvan Source. He currently chairs the Westminster College Board of Trustees. Since 1994, he has also served on the Sundance Institute board. Bob is a former member of boards for San Jose State University (advisory board), Stanford Business School Alumni, America On-Line (AOL), Daw Technologies, Electroglas, Encanto Networks, Extended Systems, Kinzan, PowerQuest, Starlight Networks, Wall Data, and Placer Rehabilitation Industries.
Bob is a summa cum laude Computer Engineering graduate of San Jose State University and a SEP graduate of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He is widely published, a frequent public speaker, and holds several computer design patents. Mr. Frankenberg has received numerous awards including: the Air Force Commendation Medal, Smithsonian Jefferson Scholar, Distinguished Utahan, and SJSU College of Engineering Distinguished Graduate. He was recently inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.