Rick Crandall serves as an independent director and advisor to a number of companies ranging from large to small, public and private. In addition to his software-industry background, he has extensive experience in corporate governance and corporate strategy in several industries being affected by or creating game-changing technology.
Rick brings to the DFIN board a former enterprise-software CEO that successfully executed a strategic transformation, extensive experience in board chairmanships, and a strategist with continuing expertise in enterprise software, cybersecurity and digital transformation.
He was the founder of Comshare, Inc. originally as a pioneer of computer-timesharing services, the predecessor to today’s cloud computing. He took Comshare through one of the earliest public offerings in the tech industry, and then guided it through one of the few total strategic transformations to software products ranging from decision support to business intelligence and executive information systems. Comshare grew rapidly and expanded to 22 countries during Crandall’s 26 year run as CEO. He eventually sold the company to what is today INFOR.
He is the founder and continuing CEO of the Enterprise Software CEO Roundtable (since 1994), the definitive group of CEOs of the enterprise software industry’s 50 firms with revenue ranging from $100 million to $5 billion. With gatherings twice yearly in New York City and Silicon Valley, the ESR keeps Crandall up-to-date with all of the key issues, opportunities and threats confronting the software industry at the CEO level.
Rick is a cybersecurity expert and serves on the Board of the National Cybersecurity Center (Colorado Springs). The NCC collaborates with the private sector, military and federal agencies to research cyberthreats and educate the public and private sectors. He chairs the core Cyber Committee of the NCC Board and authored the NCC Cybersecurity Oversight Certification Course for executives and board members.
He is Executive Chairman of Pelstar, LLC, manufacturer of the market- leading brand (Health o meter Professional ®) of medical equipment. Pelstar won Private Company Board of the Year Award for 2016, see: http://www.rickcrandall.net/private-company-boards-of-the-year-2016-named-pelstar/.
From 1995 to 2003, Crandall helped Gideon Gartner create Giga Information Group, one of the nation’s premier technology research and advisory firms that went public in the late 1990’s. From 2002 – 2003 he was Chairman of Giga and he oversaw its sale to Forrester Research.
For 13 years, he was “foreign country person” board member of Beacon Information Technology, one of Japan’s largest software companies, and assisted in its attempts to breakout beyond its local Japanese borders.
Crandall was Chairman of Novell, Inc. in its later years. He oversaw the sale of Novell to a trio of private equity firms and simultaneously much of its patent library to a consortium of Microsoft, Apple Computer, Oracle and EMC.
Crandall was the technology advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 2003 to 2008. He served as Chairman of ITAA, the association for the computer software and services industry. He served on the ITAA Board for over 20 years and chaired its strategic planning committee for 12 years.
In the year of the 25th anniversary of the birth of the software industry, Crandall was selected as “One of the 5 Leading Pioneers of the Computer Industry” (ref.: ICP Business Software Review). Crandall received the 1992 Outstanding Entrepreneur Award from the University of Michigan Business School and Harvard Business School Alumni groups.
He currently serves on the Boards of several game-changing technology companies including:
Actv8.me – a digital customer-engagement software platform for the media and retail industries.
Virun – a heavily-patented nutraceutical formulations company using chemistry and biology to create difficult-to-formulate ingredients so they can be incorporated into finished specialty foods.
Rick is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Wharton Executive Education Program, Boards That Lead governance initiative.
Crandall attended the University of Michigan where he received a BS Electrical Engineering, BS Math and a Masters in Industrial Engineering, 1966.
He is a New York City native and now lives in Aspen, CO where he is an avid mountain climber (to date having summited all of Colorado’s 58 “fourteeners,” ref: http://rickcrandall.net/wp/climb-stories/), cyclist and skier. Rick’s recently published book entitled The Dog Who Took Me Up a Mountain has been a top-ranked memoir about leadership, overcoming challenges using mountain climbing as a metaphor for business. He is married to Pamela Clavette Levy.