Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Investment Partner,Angel

Gene is a noted visionary in information technology with over 30 years of experience in executive IT management positions. He established a national reputation for his innovative use of technology and IT management practices and is a frequent speaker, adviser, and contributor at conferences.

Gene is currently president of EDGE Advisers, which he founded in 2009. EDGE advisers provides advisory services to early-stage companies that are developing products and services to address the unmet needs in the marketplace that EDGE has identified. Areas of expertise and focus include user data management and security; digitization of retail records; and smart grid communications and data management. The objective of these services is to assist companies attain traction in the marketplace.

Currently, EDGE is advising eight companies. EDGE also provides advisory services to established companies and venture capital funds seeking advice or guidance on investment opportunities. Gene presents thought leadership papers and participates in panels at conferences sponsored by organizations, such as IEEE, MIT, the American Capital Association, and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneur).

Gene is also Manager of JAZFund, LLC, a personal private equity fund focusing on early-stage investments in companies where EDGE Advisers is engaged, but also in medical technology. He is a co-founder of Boston CleanTech Angels, an active member of Launchpad Ventures and Walnut Ventures, two Boston-based angel investing groups; and a charter member of TiE, where he is co-chair of the CIO Innovation Exchange.

Gene retired from NSTAR, a Fortune 500 utility, in July 2009 where he was senior vice president and CIO for eight years. He was brought into NSTAR because the existing systems had been destabilized due to significant changes brought about by Year 2000 remediation, a merger of two utilities, and significant regulatory changes. After stabilizing the existing systems, Gene led a transformational upgrade and modernization of the application systems portfolio and the technical infrastructure that enabled NSTAR to achieve top quartile performance regarding customer service metrics and financial performance. Significant focus was placed on building transformational systems to improve customer service.

NSTAR achieved first quartile performance in system reliability and customer service through the implementation of a new set of integrated network control systems (Outage Management, GIS, SCADA, EMS, and Distribution Automation). These were seamlessly integrated with a state-of-the-art multi-channel call center, which enabled customers to get network status via the IVR, the Web, or the call center.

In 2001, Gene worked for Oracle as vice president of business development for utilities. During his 10-month stint, Gene trained the sales and support staff on utility operations, developed the Oracle utility strategy, and worked with the sales force to rebuild relations with their customers at the CIO level. As a result, sales to utilities increased dramatically. Gene also developed the application footprint, which catalyzed several subsequent acquisitions and laid a basis for the establishment of the currently highly successful Oracle utilities application suite.

From 1996 to 2000, Gene was vice president and CIO of Boston Gas where he totally re-architected and transformed the entire systems environment. This included the implementation of a totally integrated work and asset management system and a highly advanced mobile communications platform that enabled real-time dispatching and status reporting by all field crews. Having a highly configurable and plug-and-play architecture enabled Boston Gas to quickly combine operations and achieve synergy savings from three completed acquisitions. When Boston Gas was acquired by Keyspan in 2000, many of the Boston Gas systems were adopted by the acquirer.