Ed Bierdeman has an extensive computer industry background, including a variety of sales and marketing management roles for Oracle Corporation, Convergent Technologies and Servio Object Technology (Gemstone). Ed managed the automotive vertical for Oracle DMD, where he participated in large enterprise deals for Ford Motor Co. At Convergent Technologies, he was Product Manager for the NGEN desktop computer. He has previously sold, installed and supported ERP and accounting application software. Ed designed and implemented the firmware for a wafer prober and tester product at Xynetics Electroglas. He served as the Director of Distributed Systems at UCSF Medical Center, where he also taught graduate courses in Operations Research. Ed received a B.S.M.E. and B.A. from Syracuse University, an M.S. from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley. Ed previously served as an Advisory Board member for two venture capital funds that invest in supply chain-related application software companies: Catalyst Venture Partners and New Meadows Venture Partners. He was an early advisory board member at VidaNow, a web 2.0 social networking company.