Betsy Atkins is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

business executive and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. She was formerly the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the software provider Clear Standards, Inc. In 2010, Clear Standards was acquired by SAP. She is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Baja Corp, a venture capital investment firm, that she founded in 1993. Atkins is on the board of directors of

Wynn Resorts Wynn Resorts, Limited is an American publicly traded corporation based in Paradise, Nevada, that is a developer and operator of high-end hotels and casinos. It was founded in 2002 by former Mirage Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn and is now r ...

and

Volvo Car Corporation Volvo Car AB, trading as Volvo Cars (, styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles. Volvo is headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and sedan ...

. She previously served as chairman of the

SAP AG Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a sep ...

advisory board and was a member of the

ZocDoc Zocdoc, Inc. is a New York City-based company offering an online service that allows people to find and book in-person or telemedicine appointments for medical or dental care. The platform also functions as a physician and dentist rating and co ...

advisory board. She was a member of the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

LLC Exchange board of directors and is a member of

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...

's Health Care Network board of directors. Atkins is a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

. She frequently appears on

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

and

Yahoo Finance Yahoo Finance is a media property that is part of the Yahoo network. It provides financial news, data and commentary including stock quotes, press releases, financial reports, and original content. It also offers online tools for personal fina ...

as a corporate governance commentator.

Early life

Atkins was born in the suburbs of Boston and went to a public high school. She attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her early career was in the industrial automation and semiconductor industry at General Electric.

Career

Atkins co-founded Interlan, an Ethernet network controller card systems company. The company was acquired by Micom Systems in 1985. In 1988, Atkins became the CEO of Key Computer Labs, selling the company to

Amdahl Corporation Amdahl Corporation was an information technology company which specialized in IBM mainframe-compatible computer products, some of which were regarded as supercomputers competing with those from Cray Research. Founded in 1970 by Gene Amdahl, a for ...

. In 1989, she co-founded

Ascend Communications Ascend Communications, Inc. was an Alameda, California-based manufacturer of communications equipment that was later purchased by Lucent Technologies in 1999. Ascend Communications was founded in 1988 and taken public in 1994. Initial investo ...

and served as a board member and their Global CRO and EVP marketing and services. Ascend was acquired by

Lucent Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies busines ...

in 1999. Atkins joined the Lucent board in 2000. She became the CEO of NCI, Inc. a nutraceutical

functional food A functional food is a food claimed to have an additional benefit beyond just nutrition (often one related to health promotion or disease prevention) by modifying the horticulture, cultivation of the native food or by food additive, adding ingr ...

company, building the company until it was acquired by Artal Luxembourg in 1993. Her recent work has been in corporate governance, where she has served as an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

on the Adelphia bankruptcy case in 2003 and as chairman of the Special Litigation Committee at

HealthSouth Corporation Encompass Health Corporation, based in Birmingham, Alabama, is the nation's largest provider of inpatient rehabilitative services, offering facility-based care through its network of 166 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals located in 38 states a ...

Board work

Atkins has served on more than 27 public boards and various private boards and a number of private equity and venture-backed boards in various industries. She has been through 13 IPOs and has directorship experiences in America, Canada, France, China, and Sweden. According to a Harvard study, she has served on the second most public boards of any woman.

Books

Atkins released her first book, ''Behind Boardroom Doors: Lessons of a Corporate Director'', in 2013, which was intended to offer practical advice for those who serve on the boards of global, complex enterprises. In 2017, she released an updated version of the book, which includes new material about cybersecurity and digitization. In 2019, Atkins published her third book, ''Be Board Ready: The Secrets To Landing A Board Seat And Being A Great Director''.

TV appearances

Atkins has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Yahoo Finance as a corporate governance expert commentator. She has commentated on the role of the CBS board and its special committee review of

Les Moonves Leslie Roy Moonves (; born October 6, 1949) is an American media executive who was the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation from 2006 until his resignation in September 2018 following numerous allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault and ...

Other work

Atkins is a regular ''Forbes'' contributor. Her area of focus includes corporate governance and business trends. She is a proponent of women leadership in corporate settings. In 2018 she hosted a Women in Leadership luncheon at Volvo HQ in Sweden. Atkins joined the Wynn Resorts board of directors in 2018 and participated in the inaugural launch event of the Wynn Resorts Women's Leadership Forum.

Education

Atkins received a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

, ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'',

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

Controversy: Maine beach access

In June 2014, Atkins, president of Gables Real Estate, LLC, purchased Cedar Beach Road, required for public access to a private beach on Bailey Island, Maine and vowed to keep it private. A nonprofit group formed to encourage access and after exhausting all avenues, a lawsuit was filed for usage. A Maine court granted a prescriptive easement to town residents to access a private road in order to gain beach access after demonstrating nine decades of continuous usage by locals and summer residents. On July 19, 2016, the Maine Law Court overturned the lower court's decision to grant a prescriptive easement across Cedar Beach Road. As a result, the road is now entirely private, and its use is at the discretion of the owner, Gables Real Estate, LLC. Atkins has indicated that she will decide whether or not to continue to allow public access to the beach on an annual basis. The town has taken measures to preserve beach access for all by deploying beach monitors.

References

External links

Forbes.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, Betsy Living people American women chief executives University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni 1953 births 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople