John Reed is currently the Director of Product Management and Business Operations for the IBM iSeries server. John's organization is responsible for product positioning, strategic product requirements and direction, and product launch and marketing for the iSeries product line. John reports to Al Zollar, GM, iSeries, Systems Group. John holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. John began his IBM career in Rochester, Minnesota in December of 1983 as an engineer in Manufacturing. While in Manufacturing, John held several technical and management positions including managing the Systems Manufacturing lines. John then joined the iSeries (then AS/400) product management team in 1998. He was the project executive responsible for delivery of V4R5 and the industry's first introduction of silicon on insulator (SOI) technology. John also managed the transition of the AS/400 product line to eServer iSeries.