Richard Ptak, Foreground and Background

Richard Ptak, Foreground and Background (from the series The IT Analyst Gallery)

I simply have no idea how long I’ve known Rich Ptak. I’ve run into him ever since I began attending analyst conferences. He’s probably been an analyst as long as I have. He used to be a VP with the Hurwitz Group and went on to run his own analyst company, Ptak & Associates, which later became Ptak, Noel and Associates, when it merged Jasmine Noel’s operation.

Richard is my kind of analyst. He occupied engineering and marketing positions before he entered the analyst community, working at one point for DEC. His knowledge and understanding of technology was earned at the coal face and, as a result, his opinions are to be valued. In this image, Rich claims the foreground, but is also echoed in the background.