Management Team

LinMin's management team, led by Laurent Gharda, is comprised of infrastructure and systems management software veterans, with excellent track records in both Fortune 500 and startup companies.

Laurent Gharda
CEO and Founder of LinMin Corp.

Laurent Gharda is a seasoned IT industry veteran with over 25 years of management experience gained at tech companies ranging in size from startups to Fortune 500 multinationals.

He launched LinMin in 2007, bringing sophisticated IT products (LinMin Bare Metal Provisioning and Imaging) to market in early 2008. LinMin's products are enterprise-grade software solutions that automate the deployment and recovery of Windows®, Linux® and VMware® ESX systems, packaged for ease of use at very affordable prices, essentially disrupting the current systems management software industry in the process.

Prior to founding LinMin in 2007, he served as CEO of Open Country, a provider of systems management software. Previously, Laurent served as COO of the Internet company eCode.com, pioneering the development of Internet toolbars and identity management solutions. Laurent also was vice president of marketing at both Phoenix Technologies, a global provider of core system software for PCs, servers and embedded systems, and at Award Software, a BIOS developer subsequently acquired by Phoenix.

Laurent's other executive posts have included vice president of sales at storage and server management provider Veritas Software (now a part of Symantec Corporation), and as president of QualSoft, a company he founded. Laurent also spent ten years in a variety of business development and marketing positions at Hewlett-Packard.

Laurent holds a B.A. degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley, and a French National Baccalaureate in philosophy and modern languages.

Laurent is the sole inventor of US Patent 6,009,520 and co-inventor of US Patents 6,560,702 and 6,564,318, addressing the manageability of application software, system software and enabling firmware in computer systems and embedded devices.

Laurent serves on the Boards of Directors of the open source company CodeWeavers.

Host Review interviews Laurent Gharda

Rick Mansfield
Vice President of Research and Development

Rick Mansfield oversees all technical aspects at LinMin, including research, product development and technical support. Rick is a technologist with a successful technical track record in many industries and disciplines.

While working with prestigious organizations such as American Express, AT&T, Dole Foods, First Interstate Banking Services and the State of New Mexico, among others, Rick architected, implemented or managed teams that produced a wide variety of IT solutions including high volume transaction processing systems, real time embedded systems, systems management solutions and more.

From credit card processing and election tabulation systems to Web-based systems management and bare metal provisioning products, Rick has been deeply involved with numerous technologies, operating systems, programming languages and development methodologies.