Name Changes: Formal to Pedagogue
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Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on March 29, 2000. All rights reserved.
Management Moves: New at NEC
E-mail: BarbaraFox@princetoninfo.com
NEC Research Institute Inc., 4 Independence Way,Princeton 08540. David Waltz, president. 609-520-1555; fax, 609-951-2481.Home page: www.neci.nj.nec.com.Look for some commercial spinoffs when the former vice president ofthe computer science division of NEC Research Institute, David Waltz,becomes president. On April 1 he succeeds C. William Gear, who remainsas an executive advisor.Waltz went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Class of 1965),where he also received his graduate degrees. He taught at the Universityof Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, directed data mining and text retrievalat Thinking Machines Corporation, and since 1993 has been an adjunctprofessor of computer science at Brandeis University and also vicepresident at this institute, the U.S. basic research unit of NEC Corporation.Founded in 1988, the institute conducts research in Web and robustcomputing, intelligence, vision and language, materials, nanophysics,biophysics, theoretical computer sciences, and physics.Steve Lawrence and C. Lee Giles began turning the expectations ofthe Internet world upside down when they revealed that search enginetechnology was not as good as everyone thought it was (U.S. 1, May27, 1998 and July 14, 1999.) Waltz was the vice president in chargeof the Lawrence/Giles research, so perhaps it will produce thefirst commercial product to hatch at 4 Independence Way.Top Of PageName Changes: Formal to PedagogueThe company moniker was a good name — Formal Systems— but the product name, Pedagogue Testing, was better known. Nowthe name of the company and the name of the product are the same.Stephen Just founded the Thanet Circle-based firm in 1983 and namedit Formal Systems, after the theories of Swiss psychologist, JeanPiaget. Its major product, Pedagogue Testing, is an E-learning testingand assessment tool, a template-driven authoring system for enterprise-widetraining. Deployed through E-mail, intranet, or website, it tracksresponses and gives feedback to participants (U.S. 1, March 4, 1998).”The product was better known than we were,” says Just. “Weare developing new products for the online marketplace — a virtuallibrary system, a virtual university, and a tutorial system. We playedaround with different names and decided to continue the Pedagoguename through all of our services. It made sense then, since we werebranding this name and have a registered trademark, to be known bythat name.”The newly-named Pedagogue Solutions derives 90 percent of its incomefrom pharmaceutical clients, and the three largest clients are Wyeth-Ayerst,Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer. Its multimedia offerings includeintranets, websites, testing and assessment systems, computer-basedtraining, and the development of virtual universities. The son ofa marketer of imported cameras and photographic equipment, Just majoredin physics at State University of New York at Stony Brook and cameto Rutgers, in 1968, for two master’s degrees and a doctoral degree.He directed the research computing group at Mathematica Policy Researchand worked on a UNIX authoring system at Bell Labs.Just started out developing individual courses and now has three businessunits:Learning Solutions, with enterprise-level learning systems,primarily in a vertical market, the pharmaceutical industry. “Wedevelop courseware and structural components,” says Just. “Thecontent is proprietary to each client but there is some overlap. Ourvirtual universities are built with open standards; anyone’s contentcan fit.”Testing and assessment systems.Website development on the Internet. “Many productwebsites are education driven,” says Just.But Just doesn’t want anyone to think his work is limited tothe drug industry. “Our testing solutions can be sold anywhere,they are not content specific,” he says. “Our only challengeis finding good people: instructional designers, web designers, graphicartists, account managers. We could add a half dozen people tomorrow.”Pedagogue Solutions, 100 Thanet Circle, Suite 105,Princeton 08540. Steven Just, president. 609-921-7585; fax, 609-921-8248.Home page: www.pedagogue.com.Top Of PageHelmsman to Ebudgets.ComForget about hiding an expenditure until it is too lateto cancel the purchase. Online accounting — which keeps trackof spending in real time — can uncover spendthrifts.”Today’s new economy demands budgeting solutions that allow acompany to take control of their planning process in real-time,”says Ken Kay. He is CEO of the Helmsman Group, at Princeton MeadowsOffice Center, which is changing its name to match its new product,ebudgets.com. Says Kay: “Ebudgets.com reflects our beliefthat budgeting must keep pace with today’s E-business.”The son of a Korean diplomat who majored in finance at the Universityof Chicago, Class of 1978, Kay earned his MBA there as well. He foundedthe firm in 1989, and its clients are firms that do $50 million to$1 billion in sales. With such clients as Countrywide Home Loans,Toronto Dominion Bank, Agency.com, Western Wireless, GenProbe, andAmerada Hess, Ebudgets.com targets the middle market for its budgeting,forecasting, and planning software. (U.S. 1, June 16, 1999).The product allows users to control expenses and set spending limitsto keep the budget aligned with corporate goals. For instance, theproduct can monitor employee purchase requests in real time and takesteps to control spending before an unauthorized or “over budget”item is purchased. It is also easily revised, so any changes are immediatelyreflected in the procurement system.Managers can collaborate on budgeting in real-time by using theirweb browsers, user bulletin boards, automated E-mail reminders, shareddocuments in collaborative folders, and posted budgeting instructions.”We no longer live in the slow-paced world of passive budgetingwhere spreadsheets were sufficient,” says Kay. “A web-basedapproach is the only way to put control back into the hands of corporatefinance.”Ebudgets.com, 666 Plainsboro Road, Suite 1236,Plainsboro 08536. Kenneth Kay, president. 609-275-9416; fax,609-275-6512. Home page: www.ebudgets.com.Top Of PageStart-Ups: Consulting CornerPrinceton Performance Dynamics, 81 Bertrand Drive,Princeton 08540. Helene Mazur, president. 609-924-9399; fax, 609-924-9533.E-mail: hmazur.ppd@erols.com.After a 20 year career in the technical aspects of financial services,Helene Mazur is going on her own. “I am building on all the thingsI’ve done over the years,” says Mazur. She has affiliated herselfwith Resource Associates Corporation in Reading, Pennsylvania, a strategicand organizational development company.Helene Drucker Mazur was born on Long Island, went to the State Universityof New York at Albany, Class of 1980, and has an MBA from New YorkUniversity. Her husband works in the pharmaceutical industry, andthey have two children, four and seven.Mazur worked for Electronic Data Systems in Boston, Dallas, and SouthernCalifornia. Then, in Manhattan, she worked for Dean Witter Reynoldsand Bankers Trust. Among her jobs at Merrill Lynch was strategic planningfor the financial consultant workstations in conjunction with thewebsites. She traveled nationally to sell Merrill Lynch’s plans foroutsourcing benefit services.”It was a challenging job and I loved it, but I’ve done my traveling,”says Mazur. The first criteria for being her client is, be local.Results, 19 Aster Court, Belle Mead 08502. AbeGutman, owner. 908-281-7338. E-mail: ResultsServices@aol.comA graduate of Buffalo State University, Abe Gutman worked for bigcompanies such as Kodak and Johnson & Johnson before moving to smallerfirms. That whetted his appetite for going out on his own.Gutman describes his company as “action oriented” and as specializingin strategic marketing and sales services for businesses in the healthcare industry. “We use a team of senior executives to work closelywith a company’s management team — to assess business needs, developa strategy, recommend the best tactical options, and work in harmonywith your team to design and deliver customized marketing and salessolutions on time and on target,” says Gutman.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
