Entrepreneur of the Year:
ReiJane Huai
Chairman & CEO
FalconStor Software, Inc
As a visionary in the data protection industry and an esteemed Long Island business and technology leader, ReiJane Huai, Chairman and CEO of FalconStor Software, has enjoyed a prolific, distinguished career in software development and management that spans 25 years
A native of Taiwan, Huai came to the United States in 1984 and received a master's degree in computer science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1985. After a brief tenure at AT&T's Bell Laboratories, Huai joined Cheyenne Software, where he quickly rose to prominence in the company, heading research and development (R&D) and subsequently becoming president and CEO.
At Cheyenne, he served as chief architect of ARCserve, the industry's first storage management solution for the client/server environment. Huai successfully spearheaded Cheyenne's drive to become the industry leader in backup/restore and disaster recovery (DR). During that time, Huai saw Company revenues soar, and in 1995, Cheyenne was named one of Forbes Magazine's "200 Best Small Companies to Work for In America". Huai was largely responsible for Cheyenne's success and sale to CA in 1996 for $1.2 billion USD.
While at CA, he oversaw sales, marketing, and the development of strategic joint ventures in the Asia-Pacific region. With a vision fueled by Internet-driven data explosion and the need to manage ever-increasing enterprise data volumes, he and a seasoned team of experts joined forces in 2000 to bring a new storage virtualization platform to market.
As CEO of FalconStor Software in Melville, NY, Huai has built the company's offerings from this open storage virtualization platform, forging strong OEM relationships and amassing a vast network of channel partners to bring the company's data protection product portfolio to the widest customer base possible.
Today, a decade later, FalconStor is the leader in disk-based data protection and continues to be an innovator in the storage virtualization space. FalconStor solutions help customers virtualize, consolidate, deduplicate, and protect critical data stores over heterogeneous storage networks, providing simplified storage management and DR services to ensure high data availability and business continuity. FalconStor solutions eliminate vendor lock-in and give organizations the freedom to choose the applications and hardware components they want, helping them reduce dependencies on proprietary systems and future-proof them against costly technology changes down the road.
Despite economic fluctuations, Huai and his team at FalconStor have enjoyed steady growth and ongoing profitability. Armed with a strong balance sheet, FalconStor is continuing to build a business infrastructure that facilitates the establishment of strategic partnerships and delivery of first-class services and support. FalconStor was included in Forbes' 2008 list of America's 25 Fastest Growing Technology Companies, and Huai was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009. In 2009 and 2010, instead of laying off employees to cut expenses, Huai invested in further developing and marketing FalconStor solutions, creating jobs and stimulating commerce on Long Island and beyond
Huai's entrepreneurial spirit of innovation is pervasive throughout FalconStor. It is this spirit that drives the entire company to develop flexible and efficient technology solutions that address real-world customer needs. The end result of his leadership translates into a first-class business that creates award-winning products that consistently garner industry accolades and have won the loyalty of thousands of customers worldwide.