Equiinet's Management Team

In 1982 he established his first company, Steebek Systems, designing and manufacturing modems. Steebek was acquired in 1995 and then followed Mayze Systems, founded in 1987 and acquired in 1989. In 1992 Jones founded Sonix Communications with backing from Schroder Ventures and Greylock. By 1995, Sonix had achieved UK market leadership for ISDN internetworking equipment and was sold to 3Com for $70M. In 1997 Jones joined Schroder Ventures as part of their IT Industry Investment Team.

Industry accolades include 'Venturer of the Year' from the British Venture Capital Association, Cartier and the Financial Times - 'Entrepreneur of the Year' in the Real Business CBI Growing Business Awards and 'Technology Entrepreneur of the Year' at the European Technology Forum.

Previously, he worked for Borer Electronics and General Datacomm UK as Technical Director. He started his career in data communications working for Racal-Milgo.

Born in Wales, Jones has a BSc(Hons) in Electronic Engineering and a MPhil awarded for research in data communications, both from the University of Southampton.

Keith Baker Managing Director Keith Baker is a chartered engineer with more than 25 years experience in applying and developing leading-edge technologies for the engineering, computing and communications industries. Another of the original founders of Equiinet, his original ideas spawned the development of NetPilot.

Keith was managing director and co-founder of i²it: a software development company that specialises in distributed computing and communications technologies.

Formerly Equiinet's Research Director and Special Projects Director, Keith's primary focus these days is undertaking the duties of Managing Director and heading Equiinet's push into eLearning markets.

Following roles with Racal as Project Leader and Principal Engineer at Master Systems, Jon was invited by Bob Jones to join Mayze Systems as Software Manager, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the software department and for the philosophy behind the modem product range. He introduced the concept of range-wide reusable software, which dramatically reduced the time to market of new products. When Mayze was acquired by Dowty in 1989, Summers re-joined Dowty Information Systems as Development Manager, where he was responsible for the whole development cycle.

In 1992, Summers was one of the co-founders of Sonix Communications, funded with 2.1M backing from Schroder Ventures and Greylock Management. In the role of Technical Director, he was responsible for the whole design and development operation. By 1995, Sonix had achieved UK market leadership for ISDN internetworking equipment with a 46% market share. In May 1995, Sonix was sold to 3Com for $70M. The products and the business have now been fully merged into the 3Com organisation. In the period before leaving 3Com, Summers was responsible for 45 engineering staff based in six locations around the world.

Jon lead the software and hardware teams that developed NetPilot, CachePilot and SecurePilot for Equiinet's SME and Education markets.

Jon has a BSc in Electronic Computer Systems from the University of Salford.

John Butler Commercial Manager John has a wealth of commercial, financial, managerial and IT knowledge gained from his long time involvement with Mayze, Sonix and Equiinet.

Initially, John worked as a computer consultant designing and implementing networks for start-up companies. It involved computer programming and was very hands-on. He helped numerous young companies by ensuring their IT infrastructure kept pace with the growing demands placed upon it.

He joined Bob Jones at Mayze and switched from systems architecture to running the systems he had installed. His role in administration grew with his involvement in Sonix as the company expanded exponentially, and by year two, John was managing the finances of a £16m turnover business.

His combined role in Equiinet is in finance, operations and administration. Essentially behind-the-scenes, John ensures the organisation continues to run smoothly whatever it takes.

This is the third time John has worked with Bob Jones as part of the core management team, bringing a stabilising influence to an entrepreneurial organisation.

Dave Abbot Marketing Manager Having previously held software develop-ment and consulting positions with a variety of differing sized organisations, Dave has worked most recently with a number of leading networking companies in product management and product marketing roles.

One of the early projects Dave worked on as a software engineer was creating communications front end processors for large IBM and Unisys mainframes. This included writing the operating system for the chosen hardware as well as all the higher level applications. Dave also wrote the software for the first microprocessor based statistical multiplexor to be sold in the UK.

Later roles included working for large end users, distributors, VARs and manufacturers and hence gained an insight into the needs and working environments of differing types of businesses relevant to his current position.. Marketing roles with networking companies included periods at ACC, Micom, Interlan, and Ungermann Bass.

He joined Bob Jones at Sonix and product managed the award winning Arpeggio product line before overseeing its migration into the 3Com OfficeConnect productline.

Besides marketing duties at Equiinet, Dave has a hand in both training and web site activities.

Prior to joining Equiinet five years ago, Maggie worked for sixteen years for Emerson Liebert, the American UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) manufacturers with UK headquarters in Swindon. She worked her way up from Sales Administration, through the Commercial Department and on to Shipping Manager.

With eighteen years IT experience, he has a good breadth of knowledge of a wide range of platforms and all major applications. This is invaluable in supporting NetPilot and CachePilot in the field.

Prior to working for Equiinet, Mike supported Lotus notes on BT servers with mission-critical systems and a major contract for Lloyds Bank. He also worked in academia for BBSRC.