Apple CFO Named To Enterprise Software Company's Board Of Directors

by , 3:00 PM EDT, October 22nd, 2002

News.com is reporting that Apple CFO Fred Anderson has joined the board of directors of Crystal Decisions. Fred Anderson has served as Apple's CFO since 1996, and was brought in by then-CEO Gil Amelio. He was one of the few executives to survive the shake up that occurred when Steve Jobs took over the helm of the company in 1997. From News.com's terse report:

"After significant due diligence, I decided that Crystal Decisions offered a great opportunity to contribute to a company with tremendous growth potential," Anderson said in a statement released by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based software maker. Anderson also serves on the board of 3Com.

Crystal Decisions is the maker of software solutions for enterprise networks. From that company's home page:

With Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise and Crystal Analysis, we are the de facto standard for reporting and analysis across the enterprise for many companies. In addition, we have been chosen as a strategic SAP partner - our technologies are now included in mySAP Business Intelligence - and we provide the reporting component for Visual Studio .NET from Microsoft. Learn how our products fit into the spectrum of business intelligence technologies.

Currently, the company does not make offer any software for the Mac OS X platform. CrystalDecisions recently underwent a change in leadership as former CEO Greg Kerfoot was bumped up to be Chairman of the Board, while Jon Judge was brought in to be President and CEO. Mr. Judge is a 25 year veteran of IBM.

Board additions often accompany a change in CEOs, but it is somewhat less common for a CFO to be named to a board. CEOs, Presidents, and Chairpersons more often than not occupy most established companies' boards.

Fred Anderson's track record with Apple has been exemplary. Apple was the first company to recognize, and report, the tech downturn that started in the Fall of 2000, and the first company to begin to climb out of that downturn. Apple has also remained one of the only profitable PC manufacturers in a tough market, and Mr. Anderson has been credited with much of that.

You can find more information on Crystal Decisions at the company's Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is a feather in the cap of Apple as well as Fred Anderson. We also hope that it might mean that the company will be considering some Mac OS X Server solutions in the future.