Patrick Quirk sets the overall strategic direction and drives the operational performance for the Emptoris business unit at IBM. With more than 25 years of experience in enterprise software management, research and development, and marketing and sales, Quirk is a respected leader in the strategic supply management market. Quirk was the President and CEO of Emptoris, Inc. when the company was acquired by IBM in 2012. Prior to joining Emptoris, Quirk was Senior Vice President for worldwide sales at GoldenGate Software, a leading provider of high availability and real-time data integration solutions for heterogeneous enterprise IT environments. As General Manager of PeopleSoft's Enterprise Supply Chain Management division, Quirk led the strategic direction, product development, global marketing, and customer support for the division. In this capacity, Quirk led the evaluation and acquisition of JD Edwards for $1.7 Billion, the largest software acquisition in ERP and PeopleSoft's history. Quirk was also Executive Vice President of worldwide operations at Keynote Systems Inc., the leader in online customer experience and business performance. Other positions included Vice President of Strategic Accounts at i2 Technologies, Vice President of the Americas and Asia Pacific for Aspect Development (acquired by i2), Vice President of worldwide sales at Connect Inc., and Vice President of the Americas for Avalon Software, an ERP company. Quirk holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.