Sheryl Handler

{{Short description|American businesswoman}} {{BLP sources|date=December 2010}} '''Sheryl Handler''' (born 1955) is an American businesswoman recognized as one of the founders of Thinking Machines. She is the founder and CEO of Ab Initio.

==Education and career== Handler attended Case Western Reserve University for interior design and received her master's degree in landscape architecture from Harvard University.<ref name="inc">{{cite news|last1=Gary A. Taubes|title=The Rise and Fall of Thinking Machines|url=https://www.inc.com/magazine/19950915/2622.html|accessdate=12 August 2017|work=Inc.com|date=15 September 1995|language=en}}</ref> Handler had previously participated in the start-up of the Genetics Institute at Harvard and was pursuing her doctorate in city planning at MIT when she met Danny Hillis, a fellow MIT graduate student working on parallel computing.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sanger|first1=David E.|title=A Computer Full of Surprises|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/08/business/a-computer-full-of-surprises.html?pagewanted=all|accessdate=12 August 2017|work=The New York Times|date=8 May 1987}}</ref> Hillis and his PhD advisor, Marvin Minsky, were looking to market a connection machine as a tool with which to develop software programs for artificial intelligence.<ref name="inc"/> Handler helped found the Thinking Machines Corporation, where she served as CEO until 1992. After Thinking Machines went bankrupt in 1995, Handler and several other former employees founded Ab Initio Software.

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Handler, Sheryl}} Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:American businesspeople in the computer industry Category:Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni Category:Case Western Reserve University alumni Category:MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni Category:American women business executives