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Andy applies an engineering approach to business and everyday life.

Growing up on a lake in rural New Jersey, Andy began tinkering with engines and radios at a young age. He developed an interest in electronics in high school and enrolled at Cornell University, where he studied electrical engineering and operations research. After working for two years as an engineer, he returned to Cornell on a full scholarship to complete master’s degrees in engineering and business.

His coursework in circuit design and microprocessors led him to Intel in 1981. He was the product-line manager for the chip maker’s flagship microprocessor, the 8086, during the debut of the IBM PC. Andy worked at Intel for five years, leaving in 1986 in order to get a step closer to the end-user.

Anticipating the rise of the communications industry, Andy joined 3Com to help define and launch the 3Station, the world’s first disk-less workstation. The business generated $22 million in revenue in its first year.  Andy moved on to run marketing for all hardware, and then started a division to focus on network adapters and hubs.  By its third year, the new division was highly profitable with more than $250 million in annual revenues.

In late 1991, Andy left 3Com to explore opportunities in venture capital and to help some former colleagues start an Ethernet switch business, Grand Junction Networks.  During this process he got to know the partners at Matrix, and in early 1992 joined the firm. Andy led an investment in Grand Junction, and the company was sold to Cisco three years later.  At Cisco, Grand Junction has grown to become a multi-billion dollar business.

At Matrix Andy has invested in and advised dozens of companies, including Unwired Planet (Openwave), which went public in 1999; SiTera, which sold to Vitesse for stock worth $1.5 billion at the time of the close; and Alteon WebSystems, which listed its shares on Nasdaq before being acquired by Nortel Networks in a landmark $7.8 billion deal.