Darkstrand Adds Business Leaders Lisa Pollina and Robert Shapiro to Board of Directors
New Directors Bring In-Depth Corporate Experience and Financial Services Expertise to the High-Speed Connectivity Industry Leader
CHICAGO, IL December 2, 2009 – Today Darkstrand, a pioneer in corporate high-speed connectivity bridging research and commercialization, announced Lisa Pollina and Robert B. Shapiro to Darkstrand’s Board of Directors. The new members bring a wealth of corporate experience and vertical industry relationships that will continue to fuel Darkstrand’s momentum.
“Darkstrand has always been committed to building the infrastructure for the collaboration and research needs of major U.S. corporations,” said Michael Stein, CEO of Darkstrand. “Both Pollina and Shapiro bring a deep understanding of opportunities within the financial services industry plus strong corporate leadership expertise that will be invaluable to our operations and our relationships with the capital markets. Adding them to our team is a major step towards advancing our company to the next level.”
Lisa Pollina joins Darkstrand following a 20-year career in international business development, including her most recent appointment as the Global Financial Institutions Executive for Bank of America. During her career, Pollina has sold and negotiated over $45 Billion of professional services agreements, licensing and merger and acquisition deals throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.
She joined Bank of America after founding, building and successfully exiting two global professional services firms, advising companies in the financial services, technology and healthcare industries. During the tenures of presidents Clinton and Bush, Pollina was also appointed to various NATO-related roles including as a Fellow of the German Marshall Fund and as a Councilor delegate for the Atlantic Council of the United States.
“Darkstrand provides a unique and valuable leap forward for companies with large workflow challenges,” said Pollina. “In my experience, this is an area of real need for major corporations, and can translate to real gains in productivity and competitive advantage for companies in many industries.”
Robert Shapiro is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Sandbox Industries, where he co-leads all healthcare start-up initiatives. Prior to founding Sandbox, Bob was Chairman of Pharmacia Corporation, Chairman and CEO of Monsanto, CEO of the NutraSweet Company and Vice President and General Counsel of G.D. Searle & Company.
Additionally, Shapiro was a Director of the NYSE Euronext (parent of the New York Stock Exchange) and Theranos. In his career, he has also served as a Director of Citigroup, Rockwell International, Sequus Pharmaceuticals and Silicon Graphics.
“Darkstrand’s ability to combine high-speed data transport with high-performance computing and research solutions is increasingly important for today’s corporations,” said Shapiro. “I believe that Darkstrand is well geared to usher in a new collaboration model for corporate America, in which bandwidth is no longer a constraint on innovation.”
About Darkstrand
Darkstrand, Inc. leverages enterprise-level network bandwidth to close the collaboration gap between corporations and research communities. Darkstrand is a pivotal corporate partner for solving real workflow, development and collaborative challenges, linking teams, facilities and suppliers into one ecosystem in a high-speed, networked grid environment via the National LambdaRail (NLR), a coast to coast 12,000-route mile optical network spread across 30 U.S. cities. Darkstrand shortens time to insight and expands productivity for companies wanting a competitive edge. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Darkstrand was established in 2005. For more information, visit https://darkstrand.com.
# # #
