Frank Harbist CEO of ProStor

ProStor Systems, Inc. announced that Frank Harbist has joined ProStor as president and chief executive officer. The addition of Harbist to the executive management team will enable ProStor to focus on continuing to grow worldwide acceptance and proliferation of RDX removable disk technology, and delivering leading storage software and systems through ProStor InfiniVault to intelligently manage and cost effectively retain data for long-term business use.

Harbist joins ProStor after a stellar 21 year career at Hewlett-Packard (HP). Most recently, he was vice president of strategy and operations for HP’s Business Critical Systems organization. Previously, as vice president and general manager of HP’s Nearline Storage Division, he successfully grew the tape drive, automation and media businesses and extended its market leadership. Harbist repeated his success with HP’s Storage Software Division by creating new revenue streams for the company via new product entries and acquisitions, and by entering markets for information life cycle management and unified infrastructure management. During his tenure at HP, Harbist as general manager also initiated and led the Server Appliances Operation and headed the pre-Compaq merger Industry Standard Server Division. Harbist has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"The Board is enthusiastic to bring in Frank Harbist; a tested and visionary leader who has successfully guided organizations through product, market, organizational and economic transitions," said Mark Perry, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) general partner. "His executive experience in the storage market and customer-driven focus on growing businesses makes Frank the ideal choice to lead ProStor to its next stage of growth as a dominant player in removable disk and long-term storage solutions."

"I’m thrilled to join ProStor and look forward to leveraging my industry experience and passion to drive its business growth and market success," asserted Frank Harbist, ProStor president and CEO. "While there are global economic challenges confronting all businesses, the creation of data and the need to properly retain information for longer periods of time continues to increase at an extraordinary pace. In ProStor, I see the opportunity to build on its increasing market position by continuing to drive customer-centric innovation while further establishing our technological leadership to better serve our customers."

Expanding the executive team, Steve Georgis, ProStor founder and director, will lead the RDX drive and media business as general manager reporting to Harbist.