Michael Dortch
Director of IT Infrastructure Management Strategies and Executive Editor
Robert Frances Group

Mr. Dortch has been an information technology (IT) industry analyst, consultant, "information entrepreneur" and writer for more than 25 years. Before joining RFG, Mr. Dortch developed white papers, executive presentations, marketing programs and strategies for influencing press and analysts for numerous organizations. Clients included AT&T Solutions, Lotus Development Corp. (now part of IBM Corp.), Novell Inc., Santa Cruz Operation (now Tarantella, Inc.), Sun Microsystems, Inc., and large and small corporate users of IT.

Mr. Dortch is former Director of Special Projects for NetGuide, a popular guide to life online published by CMP Media Inc. While at NetGuide, he helped orchestrate and promote the first-ever NetGuide Awards, presented to industry-leading networking products and people at a gala ceremony during the Internet World show in Los Angeles in March 1997.

Before joining NetGuide, Mr. Dortch was Vice President of Marketing, then Vice President and Chief Evangelist for UTG, Inc., a trade association of UNIX System vendors known originally as UnixWare Technology Group. He joined UTG's executive team when the organization was founded in 1994. In that role, he created and implemented a number of programs and events designed to promote UNIX System technologies and UTG members' solutions.

Prior to UTG, Mr. Dortch was a Senior Writer for Communications Week, a nationwide weekly newspaper for enterprise networkers published by CMP Media, Inc. for more than three years. His primary areas of focus were enterprise networking pioneering vendors such as Banyan Systems, Inc., Novell, and UNIX System solution providers, their solutions, and leading users.

Mr. Dortch's career in the information industry began in the 1970s when he was Manager of Information Technologies, then Senior Analyst, then Manager of West Coast Research for The Yankee Group, a worldwide market research company and consultancy based in Boston, Mass. The Yankee Group was one of the first companies to identify business information networks as strategic competitive assets. Mr. Dortch's areas of focus included PBXs, voice-data integration and carrier strategies.

Mr. Dortch's work has appeared in almost every leading business computing publication. He has appeared on the CNBC business cable television network and been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other business and technical publications. He is also a frequent speaker, panel moderator, event host and session presenter at international computing industry events. In 1990 he wrote "The ABCs of Local Area Networks,"a book published internationally in three languages by Sybex, Inc.

Mr. Dortch was a founding member of the Advisory Board of Verite, a Massachusetts-based company helping U.S. manufacturers ensure that offshore suppliers comply with international labor standards. He and his wife live in Santa Rosa, CA, just north of San Francisco.