Betsy Atkins
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Betsy Atkins is an American business executive. She is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Baja Corp, a venture capital investment firm, which she founded in 1991. Atkins is on the Board of Directors of Polycom, Inc. (since 1998), Reynolds American, Inc. (since 2004), Chico's (retail chain) (since 2004) and SunPower Corp. (since 2005). She is a member of the NASDAQ Exchange Board of Directors and a Trustee of Florida International University. Atkins is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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[edit] Education
Atkins received a Bachelors degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Massachusetts at Amhearst (1975), Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
[edit] Business Career
Atkins co-founded Interlan, an ethernet network controller card systems company. The company was acquired by Micom Systems in 1985. In 1988 Atkins became the CEO of Key Computer Labs, selling the company to Amdahl.
In 1989 she co-founded Ascend communications and served as a Board member and their Executive Vice President of World Wide Sales and Marketing. Ascend was acquired by Lucent in 1999. Atkins joined the Lucent board in 2000.
Atkins became the CEO of NCI, Inc. a neutraceutical functional food company, building the company until it was acquired by Artal Luxembourg in 1993.
Atkins recent focus has been in Corporate Governance where she has served as an Expert Witness on the Adelphia bankruptcy case in 2003 and as Chairman of the Special Litigation Committee at HealthSouth.
[edit] Prior Board of Directors
July 2005 - April 2006: Atkins served on the Board of Director of Vonage a VoIP telephony provider based in Holmdel, New Jersey.
2002 - 2005: Atkins served on the Board of Directors of UTStarcom, developer of wireless infrastructure and cellular hand sets selling to China and developing countries.
2001 - 2004: Atkins served on the Board of Directors of Paychex a national provider of payroll, human resource and benefits services.
2001 - 2003: Atkins served on the board of Wilmington Trust.
2000 - 2002: Atkins served on the board of Lucent Technologies.
[edit] References
Chief Executive Magazine, May 2004, "What to Look for When Hiring a CEO"
NASDAQ Exchange Board Press Release
Directorship Magazine Oct 2006 "Is Corporate Social Responsibility Responsible?"
Corporate Board Member Magazine Nov/Dec 2003 "My 16 Days on the HealthSouth Board"
