Upwardly Global Appoints John C. Robak and Peter Y. Lee to National Board of Directors

NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Upwardly Global, an internationally recognized nonprofit organization with a mission to eliminate barriers to professional workplace entry for foreign-educated immigrants and refugees in the United States, recently appointed John C. Robak, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Greeley and Hansen, and Peter Y. Lee, Senior Vice President of TIBCO, to the organization's National Board of Directors.  As Board members, they will participate in setting organizational policies and developing strategies and initiatives to advance the mission of Upwardly Global.

"We are excited to strengthen the breadth of capabilities and expertise of our Board with the addition of these two accomplished professionals," said Nikki Cicerani, Executive Director of Upwardly Global.  "Their experience and leadership will accelerate our ability to achieve our mission of eliminating barriers to workforce entry for foreign-trained professionals."

Currently serving as Chief Operating Officer for Greeley and Hansen, a leading environmental engineering and architectural consulting firm, Mr. Robak, 43, oversees the day-to-day internal business operations of this 17-office national firm, and provides oversight to future business planning. He is also responsible for leading all firm-wide human resources, information technology, and corporate communications activities, as well as legal affairs and the firm's governance system.

"Based on my experience at Greeley and Hansen and other professional services firms, I understand both the challenges facing many U.S. companies due to the continued shortage of qualified technical professionals, and the many benefits of having a diverse workforce," said Mr. Robak, a principal and member of Greeley and Hansen's Board of Directors. "I'm honored to be part of the National Board and to have the opportunity to assist Upwardly Global with its important efforts to bring technical workforce employers together with this largely untapped talent pool of immigrant professionals who are already fully-authorized to work in the U.S."

Mr. Robak has more than 20 years of wide-ranging human resources and operations management experience for professional services organizations, including Golin Harris, a global public relations agency, where he was Senior Vice President of Corporate Human Resources. He holds an MBA from Loyola University Chicago and a BS in Commerce in Human Resources from DePaul University, and he is currently a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for the College of Commerce at DePaul. Mr. Robak is also a founding member of the Workplace Excellence Committee of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce.

As Senior Vice President of TIBCO, Mr. Lee has operating responsibility over the DataSynapse Product Group and the Enterprise Connectivity Product Group.  Mr. Lee formerly was the CEO and Co-Founder of DataSynapse, a recognized leader in cloud computing and grid computing technologies backed by prominent venture and strategic investors such as Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs, Intel Capital and IBM.  DataSynapse grew to over $40 million in revenues with more than 100 global clients and one million cpu's in production.

"I've been involved in the organization for years as DataSynapse hired several Upwardly Global jobseekers to help us meet our business goals and talent needs.  The value proposition just makes sense and I believe in the mission," said Mr. Lee. "It is an organization with a track record of success; I'm excited to take on a role on the National Board to ensure that success is maintained and that our impact is expanded."

Prior to founding DataSynapse, Mr. Lee, 44, served as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan & Co.  He has worked on a wide range of capital markets and investment banking transactions based in New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, where he built and managed the firm's Asia Pacific Telecom/ Media/ Technology investment banking group.  Before joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Lee worked in the Strategic Planning Group of Deloitte & Touche International. He holds a joint MBA/MA degree from The Wharton School/Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and earned a BA in Government from Harvard University. Mr. Lee was also the recipient of the "Outstanding 50 Asian-Americans in Business Award."

About Upwardly Global

Upwardly Global is a national nonprofit organization with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. Jane Leu founded Upwardly Global in 2000 with a mission to eliminate barriers for immigrant professionals to enter the U.S. workforce. To date, the organization has coached 2,400 immigrant professionals and has assisted over 800 unemployed and under-employed professionals back into their career field. For more information about the organization, please visit www.upwardlyglobal.org.

About Greeley and Hansen

Founded in 1914, Greeley and Hansen is a leader in developing innovative engineering solutions for a wide array of water, wastewater, water reuse, and solid waste challenges aimed at improving public health, safety, and welfare. Headquartered in Chicago, Greeley and Hansen has a staff of more than 300 in 17 locations across the U.S. The firm provides services for all phases of projects ranging from master planning and feasibility studies through design, construction, and start-up. Greeley and Hansen has consistently been recognized by the National Association for Business Resources as one of Chicago's 101 Best & Brightest Places to Work and by the Chicago Tribune as a Top Workplace 2010. For more information about the firm, please visit www.greeley-hansen.com

About TIBCO

TIBCO Software Inc. (Nasdaq: TIBX) is a provider of infrastructure software for companies to use on-premise or as part of cloud computing environments. Whether it's optimizing claims, processing trades, cross-selling products based on real-time customer behavior, or averting a crisis before it happens, TIBCO provides companies the two-second advantage™ – the ability to capture the right information at the right time and act on it preemptively for a competitive advantage. More than 4,000 customers worldwide rely on TIBCO to manage information, decisions, processes and applications in real time. Learn more at www.tibco.com

SOURCE Upwardly Global