Betsy Atkins

Betsy Atkins is an American business executive and entrepreneur. She is known for her early stage investments in Yahoo and eBay in association with the venture capital firm, Baja LLC.[1] 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 HD Supply, SL Green Realty Corp, Schneider Electric and Volvo Car Corporation. She serves 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.[2]

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.


Controversy

UPDATE - APPEAL WON: On July 19, 2016, the Maine Law Court vacated the lower courts decision to grant a prescriptive easement across Cedar Beach Road. This means that there is no longer a prescriptive easement across Cedar Beach Road to Cedar Beach and it is wholly private and it's use may be determined by the owner, Gables Real Estate, LLC. Betsy Atkins has agreed to allow Harpswell residents to continue to use the road to access the beach, while reserving the right to revoke access at any point.[3]

Since March 2013, Atkins has litigated—through her Gables Real Estate LLC—to prevent the public from accessing Cedar Beach in Harpswell, Maine, which is near her summer home.[4] Although local residents accessed the beach for hundreds of years before Atkins purchased her property, Atkins and two other landowners blocked the road to the beach in 2011, insisting that the road was private.[5] On September 15, 2014, the Cumberland County Superior Court held that a public easement had been established on the road following "more than nine generations" of residents accessing the beach via the road.[6] Nevertheless, Atkins has indicated her intention to appeal the decision.[7]

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)


External links

  1. ↑ https://investor.shareholder.com/nasdaqomx/CorpGovDirectorsConf/speakers.cfm#25297
  2. ↑ http://www.cfr.org/about/membership/roster.html?letter=A
  3. ↑ http://www.timesrecord.com/news/2016-07-27/Front_Page/Not_giving_up_in_Harpswell.html
  4. ↑ "Defendant in lawsuit over public access to private Harpswell beach makes deal to buy road 'to keep it private'". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  5. ↑ Chase, Chris. "Harpswell residents celebrate beach-access decision". Portland Press-Herald. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  6. ↑ "Bailey Island Residents Win Access To Cedar Beach". http://wabi.tv/2014/09/17/bailey-island-residents-win-access-cedar-beach/. The Associated Press. Retrieved 22 September 2014. External link in |website= (help)
  7. ↑ McGuire, Peter. "Losers of lawsuit allowing public access to Harpswell beach expected to appeal to Maine's high court". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 22 September 2014.


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