Meet the Glance Networks Team
Rich Baker
Founder and CEORich has been working with digital images since the days when a handful of them could fill an entire hard drive. Intrigued by the problem of reducing pictures to a fraction of their size, he came up with some new techniques, which let him escape Stanford in 1984 with a PhD in hand. As an Assistant Professor at UCLA, he extended those methods to compress digitalized video.
In 1990, having tired of grubbing for research grants, Rich moved his young family from balmy LA to frozen Boston to join a videoconferencing startup called PictureTel. Over time, he became its CTO and enjoyed the ride as the company grew a dozen-fold.
He left in 1999, partnering with another PictureTel alum, Taylor Kew, to “start something” of their own. Countless conversations later, they decided the world could use a simpler way to see things they talk about. “Simpler” became Glance.
When not hunched over his laptop, you'll probably find Rich backpacking as far as he can get from a trailhead, gazing at the dark star-filled skies above.
Read Rich's blog!
Ed Hardebeck
VP EngineeringEd has always loved building things. When he found that building software didn't require getting your fingers greasy or burning them with a soldering iron, he decided to study Computer Science at MIT. He later worked as Research Staff at the MIT AI Lab and at Atari.
Transitioning into the real world, he helped ship software for some early small computers, developed a compiler for a RISC processor, and led development for ON Technology's Meeting Maker group calendaring and scheduling product.
Sometime during the dot-com era, he discovered you could build even bigger things by getting together a great team of smart people and helping them stay on track. Yes, he went over to the dark side of management, overseeing the creation of the award winning travel site Biztravel.com, eventually winding up as VP of Engineering there and later at eHealth service Beansprout Networks.
Nowdays, he's happy to balance both coding and managing. And – like everyone at Glance – a bit of everything else.
When not trying to keep up with the latest APIs, you may find him building things with his kids now, bicycling, sailing, snowboarding, or trying to practice his really bad Chinese with the waiters at local restaurants.
Claudio Topolcic
VP OperationsLike many engineers, Claudio Topolcic's love of all things technical began in childhood with trips to the local recycling station to scavenge mechanical parts for tinkering. Having started out in engineering at college, a class in computer programming piqued his interest, and led to undergrad and graduate degrees in Computer Science from MIT.
Following his love of computers, Claudio transitioned to Bolt, Beranek and Newman (later GTE Internetworking and Genuity) and got involved in the heady days of the early Internet, where he built a variety of networks to support advanced real-time applications, including the Defense Simulation Internet and served as an Internet Area Director for the Internet Engineering Task Force. He also worked for Vint Cerf at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives helping to coordinate the US government agency research networks.
When asked why he came to work at Glance, Claudio says, “I liked Rich.” He'll also admit he enjoys the entrepreneurial environment of a start-up focused on making a highly technical product easy enough for anyone to use. Fortunately, Claudio's childhood tinkering talent continues at Glance where his desk is still filled with enough spare parts to fix anything in our office. On weekends, Claudio and his wife can be found in local nature preserves, armed with binoculars and spotting scopes, tracking down less common members of Class Aves.
Jo Klos
Senior Account Executive, Manager of Sales and SupportJo's extensive sales and customer service experience began in college, when she became a successful business entrepreneur in the food cart business with her childhood friend as partner. Though they only had to work a demanding 4 hours a day in warm, sunny weather, they eventually sold the business to work in the “real” world.
Jo then spent 14 years in sales and customer support within the high tech industry, before coming to Glance, at companies such as Patriot Computer, Intertek Testing, MB Quart, and AcuCorp. Her experience included providing customer support for IBM-compatibles, Cobol development tools, and Quality Assurance processes.
Under the direction of Jo, Glance has developed a reputation for expert, fast, and personal customer service, “with a human touch”. When she can break from sitting behind her Mac, PC and Glance Bat phone, you'll find her hiking with her dog, Harley, running, skiing, creative cooking, traveling and lounging in the warm sun.
| "Always bring doughnuts for the workers." |