Merrill Freund
Merrill Freund has more than 15 years experience in high-tech public relations and has represented clients in various tech industries. In addition to formulating strategy, messaging and managing day-to-day activities on his clients' accounts, he works with his peers to stimulate high-profile placements in leading media outlets, including BusinessWeek, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and CNBC, as well as in the top computer trade publications.
Freund has led a number of successful campaigns for open source companies that supported their overall business objectives. He managed the Gluecode account, repositioning the company from a proprietary portal company to an open source application development challenger to Oracle, IBM and BEA, which ultimately led to the company's acquisition by IBM. He currently runs the Qlusters account, helping to increase by 10x the number of downloads of its open source systems management software and supporting its series B financing, and Terracotta, an open source network attached memory company, for which Schwartz has helped pioneer a brand new category through results-based PR.
Freund also has deep expertise representing companies with data center-focused technologies, including server, storage and virtualization software. For the last four years, he has managed the Rackable Systems (Nasdaq:RACK) account, positioning the company as a legitimate competitor to Dell, IBM and HP, supporting Rackable Systems' successful 2005 IPO and communicating the company's leadership on green issues. He currently leads the Xyratex (Nasdaq: XRTX) account, a $1 billion plus storage OEM, and Virtugo, a provider of management solutions for virtualization platforms. He previously helped execute the successful launch of Panasas, an innovator in parallel storage solutions.
Previously, Freund was with Marinex Communications, a New York-based PR firm specializing in healthcare and high-tech clients. Freund holds a B.A. in political science from Union College and an M.S. in telecommunications from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Twitter: @merrillfr
