The Summit offered CEO Roundtable discussions facilitated by Chairman and CEO of GlobalSpec, Inc. Jeff Killeen and Glenn Epstein, senior vice president and general manager of Philips Medical Systems MR, Inc.
Epstein and Killeen shared their expertise in running successful technology companies, touching on a wide variety of issues pertinent to leaders in the technology field such as building and retaining your executive team, managing technology, managing your board of directors, finding the right employees and sales.
Jeffrey M. Killeen is chairman & CEO of GlobalSpec Inc., the leading specialized search engine, information resource and e-publishing company for the engineering, industrial and technical communities. GlobalSpec began as a pure Tech Valley startup in 1996 and has since grown to its current position as the largest and fastest growing e-media company dedicated to serving the ‘engineering information’ category. GlobalSpec has more than three million registered users of its specialized search engine, and has grown its revenues at a compounded annual growth rate of 68% over the past five years.
Killeen has more than 25 years of executive management experience in the media and information services industries. Prior to GlobalSpec, Killeen was CEO of Forbes.com, where he led the development of Forbes’ portfolio of online information businesses. During his tenure at Forbes, Forbes.com was consistently among the Top 5 electronic financial information services, and today is considered one of the best examples of print/electronic product integration. Before joining Forbes, he was president & COO of BarnesandNoble.com, leading that organization from startup to the world’s third largest consumer e-commerce company at the time, serving more than 20 million customers in 180 countries.
Glenn H. Epstein, formerly chairman and chief executive officer of Intermagnetics General Corporation (a NASDAQ listed company), successfully negotiated the sale of Intermagnetics to Philips Medical Systems for $1.3 billion in November, 2006. Currently, he is SVP and general manager for Philips Medical Systems MR, Inc., while facilitating the integration of both companies and the relocation of the Philips Global Magnetic Resonance headquarters to Latham from The Netherlands.
Epstein was recruited to Intermagnetics in 1997 as president and chief operating officer, and he was elected to the company’s board of directors in 1998. He was appointed CEO in 1999. The board unanimously elected Epstein as chairman of the board of directors in 2002.
Under Epstein’s leadership, Intermagnetics positioned itself as a unique provider of medical imaging and diagnostic products resulting in a tripling of revenues and dramatically improved profitability and cash flow, while increasing the company’s market capitalization from less than $100 million to more than $1 billion.
These achievements helped the company to attain a ranking of number 51 for "America’s Fastest Growing Small Companies" by Fortune Small Business 100 and number 78 for "The 100 Hot Growth Businesses" by BusinessWeek, both in 2002, as well as The Business Review’s "Large Company of the Year Award" for 2002. In October 2003, Forbes listed Intermagnetics as one of its "Top 200 Growth Stocks." Personally, Epstein was praised by CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight as "CEO of the Week" in July 2003, and he has made several guest appearances on various CNBC news programs. RT Image Magazine voted him number 13 of the "25 Most Influential in Radiology" in September, 2006. Two months later, he received the "Executive of the Year Award for 2006" The Business Review, and in January 2007, he was listed as one of the "Top 25 People Who Make A Difference" by the Times Union. A special honor was bestowed when Epstein was among a small group of business leaders who participated in a White House briefing for Lawrence Lindsey, former assistant to the president for economic policy. He and five other executives presented their views on the state of the economy and its impact on their businesses.
Prior to joining Intermagnetics, Epstein was with General Electric and Oxford Instruments plc, rising from engineering positions into successively more senior management positions in both the United States and the United Kingdom. He received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont, College of Engineering, Math and Business Administration in 1981.