“Most open source luminaries are known for their code, their
successful startup successes or even their outspokenness. Andre
Boisvert comes to open source from a different angle. Having worked
for two billionaire programmers, Larry Ellison and Jim Goodnight,
Andre’s transition from proprietary software to open source
software has been an interesting journey.“Andre started out his career at IBM where he spent 13 years. At
Big Blue he was fast tracked through various positions in sales,
marketing and R&D as part of their executive program. He then
left for a turn around at Cognos (now owned by IBM). He’s been the
President and COO of the world’s largest private software company,
SAS Institute Inc. and has been the SVP of Marketing at Oracle.
After working for some of the largest proprietary software
companies, Andre now works primarily advising open source startups
using his experience in order to help them better compete with some
of his former employers. Though he keeps a relatively low profile
in the open source community though he’s definitely a mover and a
shaker…”
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