Leadership

The current chairs of the Software Industry SIG are:

Burton Grad, Co-chair

Burt Grad has been working on computer software since 1954 when he wrote the first production and inventory control programs for the General Electric Company's installation of a Univac I computer at Louisville, Kentucky. He worked for IBM on scientific and application programs during the 1960s, was part of IBM's Unbundling Task Force in 1969 and then was development director for various industries, including initial responsibility for CICS. Since forming his own consulting company in 1978, he has been performing strategic planning and valuation studies for computer software and services companies. Burt was heavily involved in ADAPSO/ITAA from the early 1970s and co-founded the Software History Center with Luanne Johnson in 2000. He is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and lives in Westport, CT. He can be reached at burtgrad@aol.com

Luanne Johnson, Co-chair

Luanne Johnson has over thirty years experience in the information technology industry. In 1971, she founded a software company, Argonaut Information Systems, Inc., and ran it successfully for fifteen years. From 1986 until 1994, she worked for the Information Technology Association of America (formerly ADAPSO), a national trade association representing companies in the IT industry, serving as Executive Director of the ADAPSO Foundation and then as ITAA President. In 2000, she and Burt Grad co-founded The Software History Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history of the software industry.  She was then President of the Charles Babbage Foundation and then became the Principal Investigator for the IT Corporate Histories Project. She can be reached at luanne.i.johnson@gmail.com

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