Company background
ZFrame provides turn-key, extensible solutions for handheld-to-enterprise
integration. ZFrame's technology brings the entire corporate intranet
to the handheld screen: applications, portals, documents, images,
emails, attachments, graphics and Web pages. No other software product
makes such a wide variety of desktop data instantly accessible and
usable across multiple handheld platforms.
The company is based in the greater Boston area. It was founded
in 2000 by three high-tech industry veterans: John Robotham, Charlie
Johnson and Howard Weiss. Each founder has 15+ years experience
designing innovative products and building entrepreneurial companies.
As a group, they hold over a dozen US Patents.
The concept that started ZFrame was simple and powerful: make existing
corporate applications available and useful on handheld devices.
The first generation of handheld development frameworks and transcoders
were expensive and inadequate for real-world applications and document
types. ZFrame's founders realized there had to be a better way,
and the ZFrame architecture is the result.
ZFrame is a privately held corporation, backed by successful high-tech
entrepreneurs on both the east and west coasts.
Board Members
Alex d'Arbeloff; Chairman of the MIT Corporation;
Co-founder and former CEO of Teradyne, Inc.
John Robotham; President of ZFrame, Inc.
Founders and Advisors
John Robotham, President and Co-founder
John Robotham brings 25 years of high-tech business management and
product development experience to ZFrame. Prior to ZFrame, Mr. Robotham
was the co-founder of SynaPix, a developer of 3D image processing
systems. At Avid Technology, the world leader in digital film/video,
he was the vice president and general manager of the Desktop Products
group, and director of corporate strategy and business development.
At Apollo Computer, he was product manager of network computing
systems and multiprocessor workstations. He has also held management
positions at Addax (software consulting), Honeywell Bull (Unix workstations),
and American Management Systems (computer services). Mr. Robotham
is named the principal or co-inventor on six U.S. Patents. He holds
a B.S in Computer Science from MIT and an M.S. in Management from
MIT's Sloan School where he was the Henry Ford II scholar of his
graduating class.
Charlie Johnson, CTO and Co-founder
Charlie Johnson is a software architect and entrepreneur with more
than 15 years of industry experience. As co-founder and CTO of ZFrame
he is responsible for directing the company's client architecture
and user interface. Mr. Johnson was a senior software developer
group at PinPoint Corporation, where he led the development of multi-platform
(Windows, Unix/Linux, PalmPilot) client/server software for a wireless
locator system.
As the founder and lead developer at Virtual Music, Charlie Johnson
developed the first multi-media "air guitar" system for PCs, receiving
a U.S. Patent for this invention. He has also held senior software
positions at Teradyne and Kendall Square Research. He holds a B.S.
degree from Princeton University.
Howard Weiss, Chief Architect
Howard Weiss has more than 30 years experience as a senior software
architect and engineering manager, with broad expertise in overall
system design, software methodology and management, image processing,
networking and real-time systems. Mr. Weiss was an early and long-term
employee at Hologic where he designed and built real-time X-ray
image processing systems for the medical market.
Mr. Weiss has also held senior R&D software engineering and management
positions at Data General, Teradyne, Advanced Technology Laboratories
(a division of Squibb Medical Systems), American Science & Engineering,
and Digital Equipment Corporation. Mr. Weiss is named principal
or co-inventor on seven U.S. Patents. He received an A.B. degree
in mathematics from Harvard University.
Advisor
Richard S. ("Chip") Morse Jr.; Morse Barnes-Brown & Pendleton, P.C.
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