Artifact Details

Description

Contributed by James Pelkey:

Jay Hill’s career began in 1963 when he joined the sales organization of International Business Machines. In 1969, he joined the start-up Inforex and rose from a branch manager to director of marketing and of international distributors. In 1976, he left to become Vive-President of Marketing and Sales for Paradyne. By the time he resigned form Paradyne in 1980, Hill had introduced a level of sales management to data communications that would have a lasting imprint on the industry and help transform Paradyne into a feared competitor and public company. He then left technology for a few years before returning to be Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for Doelz Networks (1984-1987), a manufacturer of ATM communications equipment. He left Doelz Networks to join Harris Corporation, Digital Telephone Systems Division as Corporate Vice President and Division General Manager. After a year, he next joined Cortex (1988- ) as Executive Vice President. Cortex was a provider of computer aided programming software.

I first met Jay at my initial Doelz Networks Board meeting; I was attending not as a member but as an observer. When it came time for the Marketing and Sales report, Jay joined the meeting. He was the most immaculately dressed executive I had ever seen at a venture capital backed company. He then made a presentation that reflected a professionalism learned at IBM and refined under the discipline of Bob Wiggins, the President of Paradyne. It was exemplary. After the meeting I asked Jay to have dinner with me. It became a ritual, and Frank Connors, the President of the company, would often join us. I learned much in those discussions. Jay and I became close friends and hence the pleasure of doing this interview, one that captures the changing dynamics of the leased-line market. This interview taken with the one of Bob Wiggins and of the executives of Codex and Milgo gives, in whole, a balanced view of the dominant market of Data Communications.

Date

1988-07-27 and 1988-10-26

Contributor

Hill, Jay, Interviewee

Pelkey, James L., Interviewer

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Waltham, MA, USA

Extent

18 p.

Format

PDF

Category

Interview

Collection Title

James L. Pelkey collection : history of computer communications

Credit

Gift of James Pelkey

Lot Number

X5671.2010

Related Records

102746648

James L. Pelkey collection : history of computer communications