Dr. Russell F. Henke -- Business Consultant


Corporate Background & Education



Prior to setting up his San Francisco Bay Area independent consultancy HENKE ASSOCIATES in April of 1996, Dr. Henke spent over twenty-five years in consecutive executive positions in "Corporate America". The most recent was a six-PLUS (6+) year tenure as an executive officer with Mentor Graphics Corporation (MGC), leading two different divisions of the Company. MGC designs, manufactures, markets and services Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software systems. MGC today (2009) is still among the Top 3 in worldwide EDA revenues. www.mentor.com



Dr. Henke's more recent MGC corporate position was Vice President & General Manager of the Professional Services Division (PSD), based at Company Headquarters in Wilsonville, OR and reporting directly to the CEO. After Dr. Henke took over as VP & GM in 1994, PSD became the fastest growing division of Mentor Graphics, providing value-added services strategic to the success of MGC customers worldwide, specializing in electronics engineering design implementation, process renewal and productivity enhancement. Under Henke’s leadership, PSD developed lines-of-business that included all professional design-to-manufacturing process consulting practices, education & training, client-server network design services, the MGC Open Door strategic software partners program, EDA product data management & parts creation (EDA-PDM), advanced contract design of ASICs, DSPs, boards & MCMs critical to customer production products, Intellectual Property (IP) partnerships, and EDA In/OutSourcing Services. Year-over-year worldwide professional services revenues for PSD alone grew 25% to $40 million in 1995 and bottom line operating profit increased over $4 million. Further, satisfied PSD clients purchased more than $100 million in software products from sister MGC divisions in 1995. Henke became the Company's primary spokesman for MGC’s services-centered vision.

Prior to PSD, Dr. Henke was Vice President & General Manager of the Printed Circuit Board Division of Mentor Graphics Corporation in San Jose, CA, having joined MGC in that role in January 1990. During his tenure, the PCB Division grew rapidly and profitably to about 25% of Mentor Graphics’ overall business. By introducing and leveraging several innovative award winning software products and strategic partnerships, the PCB Division became the #1 market share leader in the world in its Board/hybrid/MultiChipModule niche. Since then, this Division's products have created over $1500 million in software product & support revenue for MGC. One of the PCB Division's well-regarded customer programs, was/is the annual best board design awards. The top left & top right images are from an award ceremony at Hewlett Packard, Sunnyvale, CA.

The PCB Division provided a global reach. On the immediate left is an award presentation to Siemens Plessey Radar on the Isle of Wight, UK. The Division also established and grew key partnerships with OEM suppliers to enhance the total solutions available to MGC customers. On such vendor (International TechneGroup Incorporated) is shown in the captioned photo to the far right, receiving a Vendor Excellence Award from Dr. Henke.

Dr. Henke and Ms. Wendy Reeves Dunn worked together over several years in driving revenues for the PCB Division (photo left). Ms. Reeves was later an Executive Sales Manager at Cadence Design Systems.

In the uncaptioned snapshot to the immediate right, MGC CEO Dr. Wally Rhines (left) toasts Dr. Henke and the entire PCB Division in 1993 on having achieved the #1 worldwide market share position for the second year in a row. Dr. Henke was simultaneously in charge of the overall multi-divisional Board/MCM Process at Mentor Graphics Corporation. During this period, the seeds were sown for MGC's entry into the systems-on-a-board and later systems-on-a-chip EDA software suites.


Further, Dr. Henke was the prime mover in establishing the new MGC Silicon Valley Headquarters on Ridder Park Drive in San Jose. This facility united multiple MGC divisions and groups previously spread out around Silicon Valley. In addition to his other duties, Dr. Henke became the Site Manager of the entire facility after its opening in May 1992.

The snapshot to the right was taken at the new headquarters dedication ceremony. From left to right are Dr. Henke, then San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer, and 1992 U.S. Senate Candidate Tom Bruggere. This building continues as the hub of Mentor Graphics' Silicon Valley activities to this day.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------






For four years just prior to joining Mentor Graphics, Henke was President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Automation Technology Products (ATP), a venture-backed mechanical design automation software company headquartered in Campbell, CA. ATP offered a complete suite of exact Solids Modeling, Finite Element Mesh Generation & Analysis, Numerical Control Machining & NC Graphical Verification, and Generative NC software tools.

On the left is a snapshot at the 1987 closing of a $5 million corporate investment in ATP for 10% of the ATP equity; Dr. Henke on the left and Chrysler Vice President Robert Sinclair on the right.

Of course, all companies are team efforts. To the right is the entire cast of folks associated with the closing of the Chrysler investment, including officers of ATP and Chrysler, attorneys for both companies, and associated venture capital partners and ATP board members, September 28, 1987, Chrysler Corporate Board Room, Highland Avenue, Detroit, MI.

ATP's solid modeler created an accurate, unambiguous 3D representation in a product definition database, such as the V8 engine block shown at the upper right. Mesh generation was fully automatic, and mechanical and/or thermal analysis stress results were displayed graphically in full color (see connecting rod image here). CIMPLEX ran on IBM mainframes and Silicon Graphics workstations.

The NC Verification module allowed animated graphical simulation of metal removal up to 20 times faster than conventional simulation. Generative NC incorporated process planning and knowledge-based machine information, automatically creating numerical control programs directly from design product definition data, one of the earliest automated CAD design to real prototype processes anywhere.



Elements of ATP software CIMPLEX survive to this day; for example, the 1999
release of Applicon BRAVO! was enhanced by incorporating the manufacturing capabilities of CIMPLEX. Many "alumni" of ATP are currently key members of both vendors and users of 2009 Mechanical CAD/CAM software providers and users.



---------------------------------------------------------



Prior to ATP, Dr. Henke was President and General Manager of Gould Electronics Imaging & Graphics (IGD), Fremont, CA, a leading manufacturer of high-end image processing hardware & software, for worldwide commercial & military/government markets in satellite imaging, medical CAT & MRI imaging, pre-press color lithography, and other sophisticated graphics and imaging applications.

During Dr. Henke's tenure, Gould IGD introduced the Gould IP9000 Series Image Processor, the most powerful digital image processor of its day (see the photo shown here on the right). Included in the IP 9000 were sixteen 2048 x 2048 x 8-bit memory boards, the world's first real time moving image high speed disk drive (28 MB per second continuous data transfer), a hardware geometric transformation unit, and a comprehensive suite of installed Library of Image Processing Software (LIPS). Design and prototype construction of the Gould NPX image processing system was also completed, using unique and successful-the-first-time custom ASIC designs in four separate areas of the unit's key integrated processing components.

While in the employ of Gould Electronics, Henke simultaneously served on the Company's Acquisition Due Diligence Team, with special emphasis on acquiring CAD/CAM entities in connection with the Gould Electronics Computer Systems Division, based in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.



Henke received the Gould President's Award in 1985
for leading the most profitable division of the entire corporation.


-----------------------------------------------------------



Prior to Gould Electronics, Henke was Executive Vice President of Schlumberger Applicon, Boston, MA, a $100 million+ mechanical & electronics CAD/CAM company. During his tenure, Henke and his team shown here brought to market Applicon's first 32 bit Mechanical/Manufacturing CAD/CAM solution called BRAVO!, a software suite still in active industrial use in 2009.

Dr. Henke was recruited from SDRC and hired at Schlumberger Applicon by CEO Don Feddersen to take over the worldwide Mechanical & Manufacturing businesses of Applicon. Subsequently, Henke was given additional responsibilities for Applicon's Printed Circuit Board and VLSI software applications development, Applicon Worldwide Marketing, Marketing Communications, Customer Education & Training, and worldwide Customer Support & Field Services groups. Henke's worldwide responsibilities then encompassed over 600 people in all.



BRAVO! was named a FORTUNE Product of the Year soon after it was introduced.

During more than two years at Applicon, Henke was headquartered in Burlington, MA.

Henke simultaneously operated separate software applications development centers for Applicon: one in Boston, one in Cincinnati and one in California's Silicon Valley, to tap outstanding people skills in both mechanical and electronics design automation peculiar to those locales.

During his visits to the Applicon California office, Henke fell under the siren call of emerging enterprises in the Silicon Valley, which eventually led to his being recruited by the VC community there, after a stint at Gould Electronics.

A release of BRAVO! in 1999 was enhanced by the manufacturing capabilities of CIMPLEX, the software program from Henke's tenure at ATP (1986-90).

On August 10, 1999, UGS announced the acquisition of Applicon.




------------------------------------------------------------




Prior to Applicon, Dr. Henke was President & COO and board member of Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC), Milford, OH. Joining a then-tiny enterprise of 20 souls in 1969, Henke founded both the Company’s mechanical design automation CAE software business and its Educational Seminar Activity (ESA). Here, Henke addresses one of the first ESA Executive Seminars held in the new SDRC headquarters located in the Park 50 TechneCenter just off Interstate 275, east of Cincinnati.

Partnering with then-just-emerging worldwide commercial computer networks and complementary analysis software authors, Henke leveraged to worldwide users, time-shared and remote interactive and batch access to the rapidly growing repertoire of SDRC software, long before the rise of today's Internet. Accessed via TTY's, Tek 4011, 4014 and 4081's, CDC200's, etc., SDRC software was implemented on GE420 & GE635 computers, as well as on XDS940's, CDC 6600 & 7600, Univac 1108, IBM 370's, and many others.

SDRC software was among some of the very first CAE applications offered on the Digital Equipment Corporation VAX 11/780 machines.

From SDRC Cincinnati headquarters, Henke subsequently initiated SDRC’s geographic expansion of full service offices to Detroit, San Diego, London, Paris, Wiesbaden, etc. Here on the left, the opening of the first California office is announced at the San Diego Vacation Village Resort in the mid-70's.

SDRC was a heavy participant in co-op work/education and was also among the pioneers in establishing strong industry-faculty relationships with multiple universities. Here Dr. Henke provides a financial contribution on behalf of SDRC, to the President of The Ohio State University (standing on left) and to the Dean Of Engineering (seated)


As SDRC COO, Henke and his team profitably grew, over more than a decade, both the CAE software business unit and the consulting services business unit of what had become by the year 2000 a world-renown ($480 million revenue) MDA/PDM/Internet-enabled collaboration entity.



As a footnote, EDS announced on May 23, 2001, that it planned to acquire SDRC for $950 million in cash, and combine SDRC with Unigraphics. The sale was consummated on September 4, 2001. Combined annual UGS/SDRC revenues were then ~$1 Billion. The UGS/SDRC combination was later acquired by Siemens in 2007.



--------------------------------------------------------


Use the hot link below to go the the page containing details on Dr. Henke's Education and Personal Information.

Logos of companies above are Trademarks or Service Marks of their respective corporations.

Site Map



Early SDRC Years Award Presentation

© Copyright 1996-2009 Dr. Russell F. Henke



Go to Education & Personal Info:


Return Home Send Me Mail
This page was last updated on August 17, 2009