{{Short description|American businesswoman and technology entrepreneur}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = Sandy Kurtzig.jpg | alt = | caption = Kurtzig in 2021 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1947|10|21}} | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Businessperson | years_active = | known_for = Founder of ASK Group | notable_works = }} '''Sandra L.<ref name=ASKSan.NYT81>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/13/business/she-programs-a-success-story.html |title=She programs a success story |author=Andrew Pollack |date=October 13, 1981}}</ref> Kurtzig''' is an American businesswoman and technology entrepreneur. She was one of Silicon Valley's first female entrepreneurs, and as the founder of the business and manufacturing software producer ASK Group in 1972, was the first woman to take a Silicon Valley technology company public.<ref name=wsj1>{{cite news |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/08/29/silicon-valley-pioneer-back-in-start-up-game-with-new-company-kenandy |title=Silicon Valley Pioneer Sandra Kurtzig Back In Start-Up Game With Kenandy |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |author=Deborah Gage |date=August 29, 2011 |accessdate=2014-01-13}}</ref>
==Career==
===Early life=== Sandra Kurtzig was born in Chicago on October 21, 1947.<ref name=":0" /> Kurtzig earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from University of California, Los Angeles in 1968,<ref name=":0">"Kurtzig, Sandra L." ''American Men & Women of Science'': ''A Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences'', edited by Katherine H. Nemeh, 31st ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2013, p. 699. ''Gale Virtual Reference Library'', Accessed 3 Feb. 2017.</ref> and a master's degree in aeronautical engineering at Stanford University.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
===Contract programming=== In 1972, she left her job selling computer time-sharing for General Electric and devoted more of her time to starting a family.<ref name=entrepreneur>{{cite web |url=http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197656 |title=Sandra Kurtzig |publisher=Entrepreneur |date=October 10, 2008 |accessdate=2014-01-13}}</ref> She founded ASK Group as a part-time job, using "a $2,000 commission check from GE;"<ref name=ASKSan.Cyclo/><ref name=sbeat>{{cite web |url=http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/06/10/sandra-kurtzigs-kenandy-cloud-startup-scores-33-million-from-lightspeed |title=Sandra Kurtzig's Kenandy cloud startup scores $33 million from Lightspeed |publisher=SiliconBeat |date=June 10, 2013 |accessdate=2014-01-13 |archive-date=2014-01-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113231346/http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/06/10/sandra-kurtzigs-kenandy-cloud-startup-scores-33-million-from-lightspeed/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=ceo>{{cite book |author1=Sandra L. Kurtzig |author2=Thomas Trebitsch Parker |year=1991 |title=CEO: Building a $400 Million Company from the Ground Up |publisher=Harvard Business Press |isbn= 978-0393029635}}</ref> the $2,000 was needed to rent a time-sharing terminal.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.babson.edu/academics/centers-and-institutes/the-arthur-m-blank-center-for-entrepreneurship/awards/academy-of-distinguished-entrepreneurs/inductees/kurtzig-sandra |title=Sandra L. Kurtzig: Founder and Chairman of Kenandy; Founder of ASK Computer Systems Inc. |access-date=June 16, 2021}}</ref> Kurtzig launched ''ASK'' as a small, part-time contract software-programming business out of her second bedroom "to keep her mind occupied" and increase her income, never intending the business to operate outside her house.<ref name=entrepreneur/> She was asked by her first client, Halcyon, to create an inventory-tracking program that could efficiently provide manufacturing information.<ref name=ASKSan.Cyclo/><ref>Halcyon: "a fast–growing company that built telecommunications equipment."</ref> Realizing that other manufacturers might find such a program useful, she recruited several graduates with degrees in engineering and computers. Under her direction they wrote standardized applications that addressed problems faced by local manufacturers.<ref name=entrepreneur/>
===ERP=== ====Manman==== {{main|Manman (software)}} Kurtzig reinvested all profits into growing the company. Her company required access to minicomputers and she persuaded employees at a nearby Hewlett-Packard plant to allow her company to use one of the company's HP 3000 minicomputers outside of normal working hours. By 1978, ASK released a package of programs called Manman,<ref name=DidntASK>{{cite magazine |magazine=Hardcopy |title=She Didn't 'ASK' for the Limelight |author=Nina M. Fishwick |date=February 1984 |pages=66–68}}</ref> one of the first enterprise resource planning (ERP) software suites.<ref name=entrepreneur/> She later concluded a deal for Hewlett Packard to sell ''Manman'' for use on HP-3000 minicomputers, at a time when most ERP software was only available to run on more expensive mainframe computers.<ref name=techweek>{{cite news|url=http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/sandra-kurtzig-founder-of-ask-group-secures-33-million-for-new-venture-118623 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613032541/http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/sandra-kurtzig-founder-of-ask-group-secures-33-million-for-new-venture-118623 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 13, 2013 |title=Sandra Kurtzig, Founder Of ASK Group, Secures $33 Million For New Venture |work=TechWeek |date=June 10, 2013 |accessdate=2014-01-13}}</ref> The company went public on NASDAQ in 1981, and in 1983, Kurtzig's personal stake in the ASK Group was worth $67 million.<ref name=techweek/> She resigned from her role of CEO of the ASK Group in 1985.<ref name=techweek/> but returned in 1989 to refocus and once again grow the company. ASK bought Ingres Corporation in November 1990. At its peak, the company's annual sales were just under $1 billion U.S. dollars.
====Kenandy==== {{main|Kenandy}} In 2010<ref name=KenAndy.CNBC2015>{{cite news |newspaper=CNBC (Cable NBC news) |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/17/a-female-tech-giants-second-swan-song.html |title=Tech Giant's Second Swan Song |author=Ari Levy |date=June 17, 2015}}</ref> she founded the enterprise management software company Kenandy, where she served as the CEO through 2015 and is currently the Chairman.<ref name=wsj1/><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/business/sandra-kurtzig-of-kenandy-on-keeping-companies-focused.html |title=Don't Chase Everything That Shines |author=Adam Bryant |date=December 1, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kenandy.com/leadership |title=Executive Leadership and Board of Directors |publisher=Kenandy |accessdate=2014-01-13}}</ref> Kenandy specializes in producing cloud ERP solutions for manufacturing businesses.<ref name=":1" /> Kenandy is named after Kurtzig's sons, Ken and Andy Kurtzig,<ref name=":1">Gould, Lawrence S. "Manufacturing Meets Social Networking." ''Automotive Design & Production'' 124.1 (2012): 26-27. ''Business Source Complete''. Web. 3 Feb. 2017.</ref><ref>Ages 37 & 34; see NYT/'81 "mother of two boys, 8 and 5"</ref><ref name=ASKSan.NYT81/> who are serving as CEOs at other tech businesses.<ref name=techweek/> In June 2013, Kenandy announced a $33 million round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.<ref name=sbeat/><ref name=techweek/> valuing the company at $350 million. Other investors are Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, salesforce.com, and WSGR (Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati).
Kurtzig's autobiography, ''CEO: Building a $400 Million Company from the Ground Up'' was published by Harvard Business Press.<ref name=ceo/>
==Personal== When Kurtzig was awarded the ''Wall Street Transcript's Bronze Award'' and was shortly thereafter "profiled in ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Washington Post'',"<ref name=DidntASK/> she said "It's fun to clip articles and send them to your mother, but ''ASK'' is really a team." <!--- source included "the 36-year old Kurtzig" : above has her DOB, hence this was 1983 --><!--- need more re husband=Ari?Arie --> Her former husband's name was Arie,<ref name=KurtzigFamAndy>died late 2001 {{cite news |newspaper=BizJournals (San Francisco) |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/print-edition/2012/08/17/kurtzigs-entrepreneurial-flair-runs.html |title=Kurtzigs' entrepreneurial flair runs in family: Mother, sons have started six ventures |author=Patrick Hoge |date=August 17, 2012 |access-date=June 16, 2021}}</ref> and their sons Ken and Andy Kurtzig were born c. 1973 and 1976;<ref name=ASKSan.NYT81/> their parents divorced when the boys were 12 and 9.
Her father's name was Barney Brody. Her mother "Marian (Boruck) Brody<ref>who lived til 100 {{cite web |url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2018/06/102738566-05-01-acc.pdf |title=Oral History of Sandra Kurtzig |quote=My mother just died last year at the age of a hundred |date=September 29, 2017}}</ref> came from a wealthy Chicago family, graduated from the University of Illinois, and worked for a time as a police reporter in Chicago."<ref name=ASKSan.Cyclo>{{cite web |website=encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/economics-magazines/kurtzig-sandra-l |title=Kurtzig, Sandra L. |access-date=June 16, 2021}}</ref>
==See also== * Pearl.com (company founded by son Andy Kurtzig)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.kenandy.com/ Kenandy]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurtzig, Sandra}} Category:American business executives Category:American women company founders Category:American company founders Category:American technology company founders Category:Living people Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Category:1947 births Category:21st-century American women