Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Birnam John Finch
Woods, c. 1980.
(Photograph courtesy
of B.J.F. Woods.)
presidency, if
MCM
were to be buried, then it would have to be
with a full
APL
funeral service.
Williams didn't need to defend his
APL
position for very long.
In December of 1979, he vacated the office of
MCM
president.
The new president and
CEO
was Birnam John Finch Woods. “I
was the physician called in by Bruce Wallace and Struan Rob-
ertson [to save
MCM
] when Chuck Williams bailed out,” ex-
plained Woods. “Unfortunately I was unable to cure the patient
with the limited resources available and I had to officiate at the
funeral.”
Woods came to
MCM
with considerable computer industry ex-
perience. Before
MCM
, he had worked for, among other firms,
Honeywell, Sperry Univac, and, very briefly, Kutt's first com-
pany, Consolidated Computer, as vice-president of market-
ing. At Sperry Univac he was Canadian director for the
BC
/7
Business-Oriented microcomputer system, which was much like
the
MCM
/900.
Woods was also paying close attention to the North Amer-
ican microcomputer market. In his August 1980 article entitled
