akr

Katrina

Note: I try to alert subjects that they are being profiled, but I don't have an email for her. If anyone does, please forward her a link to this post. Thanks!

1. What does this past Kansas debater look like now?



2. What does this ex-debater now do for a living?

Katrina is CEO of Cistera Networks, a company that designs and markets XML-based application appliances utilized in Cisco IP Communications environments.

Whatever that means.

3. Has this former debater been "in the news"?

In 2003, the Wall Street Journal ran a piece about Silicon Valley "dot-com" executives burned by accepting stock options rather than cash for their services:

[S}oftware executive Katrina Roche...twice took generous options in lieu of large salaries.

Ms. Roche was hired for the first of those jobs, at Baan Co., Europe's second-largest software company, in 1998. Her new boss figured her options eventually would be worth at least $7.7 million. But the day she started work, the company announced it would miss earnings -- and the share price began a downward spiral. "There was no hope I was going to see money from those options," she says.

After several years at Baan, she joined i2 Technologies Inc. in Dallas as chief marketing officer, again receiving a large option grant. But the stock started downward soon after she joined, and Ms. Roche, a single mother of an infant son, realized that her salary alone would be insufficient to provide for her child, who today is 19 months old. She recently left i2 but hasn't forsaken options altogether. She is now president and chief operating officer of Nonstop Solutions, a closely held company with no current plans to go public, where she received options to buy a certain share in the company over time.

Ouch!

In 2002, Katrina was interviewed by Fast Company magazine.

4. What else do we know?

Katrina travels a great deal for her firm and often speaks about business-related topics.

She is also on the Board of Directors (Executive Committee) of the San Francisco School Volunteers.

Update 9/14/05: Katrina was on a panel at the 2002 World Economic Forum! The WEF is usually called "Davos" after its host Swiss city, but the 2002 meeting was held in the USA.