News Release
Karen C. Francis Joins Wind River Board of Directors

ALAMEDA, CA – August 27, 2019 – Wind River®, a leader in delivering software to critical infrastructure, today announced the appointment of Karen C. Francis to its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Francis joins the following Wind River board members: Moshe Gavrielov, executive chairman, former president and CEO of Xilinx, Inc.; Afshin Mohebbi, former president and chief operating officer of Qwest Communications International, Inc.; Nehal Raj, partner at TPG; Art Heidrich, TPG; Mark Fields, board advisor, former president and CEO of Ford Motor Company; and Jim Douglas, president and CEO of Wind River.

“We are delighted to welcome Karen to Wind River’s board. She is an accomplished business leader and experienced board member in the technology sector, who brings a new range of functional and go-to-market experience to the team,” said Gavrielov. “Karen is ideally suited to help advance our shared objective of guiding Wind River’s continued success."

Her career includes executive positions at General Motors, where she served as the general manager of the Oldsmobile division; and at Ford Motor Company, where she was president and CEO of ConsumerConnect, the corporate venture capital division that pioneered acquisition and development of industry-relevant technologies. Francis has also held executive positions in marketing, strategy, and investor and public relations at Procter & Gamble, Bain & Company, Berol Corporation, and Internet Capital Group. She served as chairman and CEO of Publicis & Hal Riney, a marketing agency in the Publicis global advertising network. Most recently, Francis was the chairman and CEO of AcademixDirect, an education technology company.

“Drawing from her years of executive experience with deep domain expertise in automotive, manufacturing, marketing, and technology industries, Karen will bring invaluable insights to the table as we continue to evolve the business,” said Douglas. “We look forward to her contributions and to integrating her perspective into the successful execution of our strategy.”

“I’m honored to join Wind River’s board at this exciting time in the company’s evolution,” said Francis. “Wind River is uniquely positioned with its software that is accelerating the digital transformation of critical infrastructure systems, and I’m excited to work with this exceptional team to ensure the business is ready to deliver upon the tremendous opportunity ahead.”

Francis currently serves as a director on several Silicon Valley-based technology boards including Nauto, Metawave, Telenav, and Dynamic Signal. She holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.

About Wind River
Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge. The company’s technology has been powering the safest, most secure devices in the world since 1981, and is found in more than 2 billion products. Wind River offers a comprehensive portfolio supported by world-class global professional services and support and a broad partner ecosystem. Wind River software and expertise are accelerating digital transformation of critical infrastructure systems that demand the highest levels of safety, security, performance, and reliability. To learn more, visit Wind River at www.windriver.com.

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Wind River is a trademark or registered trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc. and its affiliates. Other names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
 

Contact Information
Jessica Miller
Global Corporate Communications