SPOT090307
StarTribune.com content is available via e-mail, mobile devices and as RSS feeds.
Today's spotlight: Diane Palmquist
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on newsvine
Share on Digg
Minnesota business by the numbers
See Minnesota's top earning companies, CEOs and non-profits
More from Business
Age: 41
Title: Vice president of SAP Products, SoftBrands
Education: Bachelor's degree in technical writing from the University of Minnesota; MBA from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management executive program
Family: Married with two children: Dolph, 17, and Natasha, 11
Previous job: Director of product management, SoftBrands. I also worked at a number of start-up companies and was president of my own company. We built software as a service tool for other software companies.
Hobbies: Anything outside, including skiing, tennis and biking. I also do a lot of reading.
Why do you do what you do? Quite simply, it's what I'm good at. I really love technology and software and I also really love the business side. I feel like it's a unique talent to be able to put the two together. I understand application software and the market forces that drive people to buy software.
Career path: I started out in high school, writing programs and games for my friends, but I never thought there was a future in that, for whatever reason. I wanted to be a writer, so I went into technical writing, but that only lasted three months, then I became a software designer and project manager. It just went on from there.
Other than your current position, what's your dream job? To be a novelist. My daughter and I are working on a series of books for teenage girls. The protagonists are twins who solve mysteries using electronic gadgets.
What's something about yourself that others would be surprised to know? Rain or shine, and no matter what country I'm in, I get up at 4:30 every morning and go for a very hard workout at the gym. It keeps my stress levels low.
Best vacation: Wandering Europe with my family.
Advice: Never compromise your ethics.
AIMEE BLANCHETTE
Blog: Patent Pending
Patent anyone?
As any inventor would know, the first step to commercializing a technology is to secure a patent. And that means conducting a patent search to see if anyone beat you to the punch. There are number of websites will perform the search for a fee. One, patentsearchexpress.com claims to have developed a search technology that will [...]
Comment on this story | Read all 0 comments | Hide reader comments