Google Tech Chief Joins Armanta Board

Armanta, a developer of financial services technology, has named Michael Jones, Google's Chief Technology Advocate, to its board of directors. Morristown, NJ-based Armanta is a developer of integrated components including decision support, reporting, risk monitoring and business process automation.

The vendor, which was founded by several ex-financial services executives, builds custom applications for portfolio management, risk management, cross asset trading, among other areas where large amounts of data must be calculated and analyzed, says Peter Chirlian, the company's CEO and one of its founders. He emphasizes that Armanta's focus is on the larger more complex organizations with assets from $300 billion under management to "a number of trillion plus", where data usage patterns are not easily defined. He explains, "If you can story board it [the path for data and calculation] then you don't need our product."

On Michael Jones' appointment, Chirlian says, "Michael, I know has been intrigued by what we're doing because it's novel. It's a new way of approaching issues in many industries." Armanta services other industries such as healthcare and telecommunications, as well as financial services.

Chirlian adds that Jones brings a tremendous amount of knowledge that will help the company grow. "He has both entrepreneurial and large corporate experience, which is critical to helping a small, entrepreneurial company grow. He has a wealth of knowledge with larger customers," notes Chirlian. Being on the board, Jones is not in an operational role, but will provide guidance and advice on both a formal and informal basis.

Most of the other Armanta executives and board members come out of the financial services space. Only one other board member comes from a pure technology background, Paul Thomas. Thomas, who joined Armanta as president last December, has been the CEO of seven technology companies. Thomas worked with Jones in the past and invited him to join the board.

Armanta is expecting to soon add another new board member, Michael Armellino, who served as CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management from 1991 to 1994.