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The core management team at Forté has been involved with the design and development of software for enterprise and consumer markets for almost 20 years. Consumer applications include email and newsreader software. Enterprise software includes network optimization and natural language interfaces that were licensed globally by Nortel Networks. Additionally Forté created email management software to facilitate the processing of and automated response for high volumes of inbound corporate email. This application lead to the acquisition of Forté in 1997.
Charles Dazler Knuff · President and CEO
Mr. Knuff is the founder of Forté and has served as the President and CEO since 1987. Previously Mr. Knuff was the founder and Managing Partner of Natel & Co., a telecommunications consulting firm. Prior to founding Natel Mr. Knuff was in the system design and engineering group at International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT).
Mr. Knuff holds a BA from California State University, Fullerton and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
Thomas Gold · Vice President of Operations
Mr. Gold was the Vice President of Development at Forté from 1992 to 1997 and oversaw both the consumer and enterprise software development organizations. Prior to joining Forté Mr. Gold was the Director of Research and Development at Calma, now a division of General Electric.
Mr. Gold holds a BA in Mathematics from UCLA, and an MA in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego.
Mark Sidell · Vice President of Engineering
Mr. Sidell was the Vice President of Engineering at Forté since 1990 and is the principal architect of Agent. Mr. Sidell was the former Director of Application Development at Dragon Systems, a human speech recognition company.
Mr. Sidell holds a BS in Computer Science from Yale.
Christopher Beck · Vice President of Software Design
Mr. Beck was the Vice President of Software Design at Forté since 1990 and was the principal architect of Forte's email processing application, Adante. After the acquisition of Forté Mr. Beck worked with Crosspoint Ventures as an entrepreneur in residence.
Mr. Beck holds a BA in Information Science from California State University, Fullerton.
James Powers · Vice President of Product Development
Prior to becoming the Vice President of Product Development Mr. Powers was the principal architect of Forté's 3D animation products. Before joining Forte Mr. Powers was employed by TRW as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff.
Mr. Powers holds a BS in Biological Science and a BS in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine
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Acquisition of Forté
Genesys later Alcatel (NYSE:ALA) acquired Forté in 1997 to integrate Forte's email management software with the Genesys and Alcatel product lines.
In 2000 Alcatel spun off Forte's Telecommunications and Consumer Software groups. Charles Dazler Knuff acquired the Consumer Software group from Alcatel. The five principals now privately hold this group, which includes the Agent product line and the Forté brand.
Forté Business Units
Forté consists of two business units operating as separate entities. Forté Internet Software develops software applications under the Agent brand name. Forté Internet Services provides high speed Usenet feeds to subscribers worldwide via its Agent Premium News (APN) service offering.
Agent
Agent was conceived, architected and developed by Mark Sidell in 1994 to address the expanding requirements for Internet collaboration. Mr. Sidell proposed the idea to Mr. Knuff who subsequently presented it to colleagues at the University of California, San Diego Supercomputer Center. With their confirmation, Agent was released in 1995 and is now used by millions of people worldwide.
Patents
The five principals have been awarded 14 patents relating to email management and multimedia messaging handling.
Forté continues to expand its intellectual property holdings and has recently filed new patents in the areas of social software, email, and wireless communications utilizing trust networks.
For more, visit directra.com.
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