Name Betsy Atkins | ||
 | ||
Education University of Massachusetts Amherst Books Behind Boardroom Doors: Lessons of a Corporate Director | ||
Betsy Atkins Toys R Us comment
Betsy Atkins (born 1953) is an American business executive and entrepreneur. She was an early investor in Yahoo and eBay in association with the venture capital firm, Baja LLC. She was the Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Clear Standards, Inc, a leading provider of SaaS Software enterprise carbon management and sustainability solutions. In 2010, Clear Standards was acquired by SAP. In addition she is President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Baja Corp, a venture capital investment firm, which she founded in 1993. Atkins is on the Board of Directors of Cognizant, HD Supply, SL Green Realty Corp, Schneider Electric and Volvo Car Corporation. She served as Chairman of the SAP AG Advisory Board and is a member of the ZocDoc Advisory Board. She was a member of the NASDAQ LLC Exchange Board of Directors and is a member of Florida International University's Health Care Network Board of Directors. Atkins is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Contents
- Betsy Atkins Toys R Us comment
- Education
- Business career
- Beach access
- Prior board of directors
- Articles books and podcasts
- References
Education
Atkins received a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1975), magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
Business career
Atkins co-founded Interlan, an ethernet network controller card systems company. The company was acquired by Micom Systems in 1985. In 1988 Atkins became the CEO of Key Computer Labs, selling the company to Amdahl Corporation.
In 1989, she co-founded Ascend Communications and served as a Board member and their Global CRO and EVP Marketing and Services. Ascend was acquired by Lucent in 1999. Atkins joined the Lucent board in 2000.
Atkins became the CEO of NCI, Inc. a neutraceutical functional food company, building the company until it was acquired by Artal Luxembourg in 1993.
Atkins recent focus has been in Corporate Governance where she has served as an Expert Witness on the Adelphia bankruptcy case in 2003 and as Chairman of the Special Litigation Committee at HealthSouth Corporation.
Beach access
Betsy Atkins, President of Gables Real Estate, LLC is allowing Harpswell residents to continue to use Cedar Beach Road after it was deemed private by the Maine Law Court.
Previously, a Maine lower court had granted a prescriptive easement to town residents to access a private road in order to gain beach access. On July 19, 2016, the Maine Law Court vacated the lower courts decision to grant a prescriptive easement across Cedar Beach Road. As a result, there is no longer a prescriptive easement across Cedar Beach Road to Cedar Beach. It is now wholly private and its use may be determined by the owner, Gables Real Estate, LLC.
Both Atkins and the town have worked together to protect the beach, and also Galbes Real Estates legal property rights. An article was published in the Bangor Daily News by Beth Brogan on July 20, 2016, discussing the access that Ms. Atkins has given the townspeople.
Prior board of directors
1999 - 2016: Atkins served on the board of Directors of Polycom
2014 - 2015: Atkins served on the board of Directors of Darden Restaurants, an American multi-brand restaurant operator.
2013 - 2014: Atkins served on the Board of Directors of Wix.com a freemium based website creation business in Israel.
2005 - 2012: Atkins served on the board of SunPower Corporation
2004 - 2013: Atkins served on the board of Chico's
2004 - 2010: Atkins served on the board of Reynolds American, Inc.
2002 - 2008: Atkins served on the Board of Directors of UTStarcom, developer of wireless infrastructure and cellular hand sets selling to China and developing countries.
2005 - 2006: Atkins served on the Board of Directors of Vonage a VoIP telephony provider based in Holmdel, New Jersey.
2001 - 2004: Atkins served on the Board of Directors of Paychex a national provider of payroll, human resource and benefits services.
2001 - 2003: Atkins served on the board of Secure Computing.
2000 - 2002: Atkins served on the board of Lucent Technologies.
Articles, books and podcasts
Atkins, Betsy (2013). Behind Boardroom Doors: Lessons from a Corporate Director. (Available on Amazon)