Blog of Roger Greene, CEO

David Amidon

This week our friend and colleague David Amidon passed away unexpectedly. As a course developer and instructor for our Network Management division, Dave embodied the qualities we all aspire to at Ipswitch. He had a positive outlook, worked hard, cared deeply about doing a good job, was a pleasure to work with and was highly regarded by the customers he trained on our software. Here is some praise he received in course evaluations:

• “Dave, a really great job keeping it fun and keeping everyone focused.”
•  “Dave is patient and there to answer any questions.”
•  “Overall I loved the course and the instructor was great.”
•  “Enjoyed the way Dave taught the class, made it interesting and fun.  Actually looked forward to training.”
•  “Dave is a wonderful teacher!”
•  “The introduction to each component is what I needed most, and David did a great job of explaining each section.”
•  “David was a knowledgeable, helpful and engaging trainer.  He knew his audience and was helpful to all.”

Dave’s boss Mike Ehasz wrote these words about him.

It occurred to me that you may have known Dave by name or by sight, but might not have had the opportunity to know him.

David came to us with extensive network management training experience gained at a Cisco Training Partner and at Lucent Technologies’ wireless and data networking division.  He also developed and taught classes for RSA Security’s log management product, and for Archer Technologies’ governance, risk, and compliance solutions.  David earned his master’s degree in Interactive Telecommunications at New York University and completed graduate Instructional Design courses at UMass Boston.

Dave started off with Ipswitch Network Management Division as a contracted Technical Training Course Developer/Instructor in September of 2011, and was instrumental in developing the WhatsUp Gold and Plugins training curriculum.  He joined Ipswitch as a permanent employee in January 2012, and continued to develop technical product training curriculum and teach classes.  He routinely received rave reviews from students and colleagues alike.  In response to the class evaluation question “What did you find to be most valuable in this course?”, one student simply answered “Dave”.

Dave is survived by his wife, Liz, and will be remembered as an enthusiastic, positive influence on friends and coworkers.  We will miss him.

Ennio Carboni, Ipswitch's Network Management President, Accepting For Ipswitch

The Boston Business Journal just announced the results of their annual survey of the best places to work. Ipswitch ranked third among medium-size businesses in Massachusetts.

Each award we win causes me to reflect on its significance. I think this one is based on many years of learning about people and  management. For most of our 21 years I hired managers with talent, energy and enthusiasm, but not a lot of early stage executive experience. None of us had every done anything quite like starting and growing a company. For me, that was an important part of the appeal. I felt that with smart, motivated people we could figure things out as we went. And the challenge of not having been there before gave us the exhilaration of explorers of new territory.

In recent years, as we have grown to 350 employees, we recognized that our prior approach to management would no longer suffice. We had to devote more time to the art and science of managing. That needed to come in two ways – by hiring expert managers, some of whom had been places we had not, and by developing the managers already on our staff. This need extended throughout our management team. With the breadth and depth of our business, we could no longer rely on executives to understand and manage all aspects of the business. We needed from all managers both specific expertise and leadership, which includes the ability to develop talent.

Because of these efforts, our management has steadily improved. We set clearer goals and give more feedback and coaching. I am proud of our progress and of our managers. I see how much they care and how hard they work to keep getting better.

This is, however, a long process, and there is no finish line. We recognize that the landscape is ever-changing and there is always room for improvement. So while I take the news of this award with pride, it also motivates me to manage better.