Industry Executives
Gilbert Hetherwick
and Bill Berger
join the Zenph team

press release

Key Personnel

The founders of Zenph® Studios, John Q. Walker and Peter J. Schwaller, are serial entrepreneurs. They co-founded Ganymede Software in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina in 1995. The acquisition of Ganymede by NetIQ in year 2000 brought, at the time, the highest price for a private software company in the region. Before Ganymede, the founders worked on high-speed network architectures at IBM, in a variety of development, management, and marketing positions.

John Q. Walker, President, was one of the four founders of Ganymede Software. In his five years as vice president of product development, Ganymede products consistently won “Best Product” and “Product of the Year” awards. For example, only two companies won Network World magazine’s “World Class Award” twice in 1999: Dell Computers and Ganymede Software.

Dr. Walker co-authored a book on VoIP for Cisco Press. “Voice over IP” (VoIP) is the use of data networks to transfer telephone conversations which have been converted from analog to digital. He also authored a book with co-founder Schwaller on portable network programming for McGraw-Hill. He has authored dozens of technical articles, and is frequently an invited speaker on networking, software engineering, and musicological topics. He led all intellectual property efforts at Ganymede, continuing these efforts at NetIQ. He was involved in the preparation of a dozen patent filings; all have been granted patents.

He was influential in the creation of the IEEE 802 local-area network (LAN) and the 802.11 wireless LAN (“Wi-Fi”) standards. Walker has extensive experience in the development and management of emerging technologies in engineering development organizations. At IBM, he managed teams developing high-speed networking software. Dr. Walker holds Bachelor degrees in piano and mathematics, and a Masters of Science degree in computer science from Southern Illinois University. He also pursued Masters-level work in music performance at the University of Illinois. He received his Ph.D. in software engineering from the University of North Carolina, and was named a Distinguished Graduate Alumnus at the UNC Graduate School’s centennial. He holds four patents. Dr. Walker is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), and the College Music Society (CMS).

Joel L. Webb, Vice President of Business Development, is a seasoned corporate executive. Joel managed the business development for IBM’s embedded software in Asia. He identified a market for Linux-based Internet-connected devices, and negotiated joint-development agreements with eight companies. At the same time, he led a development effort for the first embedded Linux-based home gateway and handheld devices for IBM.

Mr. Webb managed architecture, design, and development of IBM’s advanced communications systems. He managed strategy within the Networking Hardware Division, strategy for corporate application software development, and managed a large software development laboratory. He headed the first development team doing peer-to-peer networking for the PC, named one of the Ten Best Programs of the year. He holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Systems from Florida Atlantic University.

Peter J. Schwaller, co-founder and director, also co-founded Ganymede Software at age 27, and served as the chief programmer there for a team of fifty developers. He holds five patents for his innovative designs, which were implemented in Ganymede’s successful products. He served as a chief software architect at NetIQ Corporation.

In previous work in IBM’s Networking Hardware Division, he developed asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) device driver software. He was a founding member of IBM's APPC Market Enablement team (“Advanced Program-to-Program Communication” – APPC – was IBM’s networking forerunner to the “Internet Protocol” – IP). He led a team of programmers who designed, developed, and tested a set of standard, portable network applications. These applications have been shipped in products by IBM, Microsoft, and other vendors. He received an Outstanding Contribution Award in IBM for this work. Schwaller co-authored a book for McGraw-Hill on portable networking programming which received rave reviews. He has written for several technical journals. Schwaller received a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University.

Mikhail Krishtal, Director of Music Research and Production, is a composer, music theorist, researcher and educator. Upon receipt of his DMA from the Moscow Conservatory in 1994, he taught there at the Department of Composition and conducted research at the Theremin Center for Electro-Acoustic Music. Dr. Krishtal has composed music in both instrumental and electro-acoustic domains. His primary music theory interests are in compositional and analytic methods of the Neue Wiener Schule. His research in the electro-acoustic field has focused on integrating the genuine qualities of traditional performance with the utmost flexibility and precision of electronic music. From 1999, he continued his research in the United States, including the Duke University Musical Instrument Collection.


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