Alan Atkinson, president and chief executive officer of Xiotech Corp., one of the largest privately held data storage companies in the world, will serve as entrepreneur in residence at the University of Delaware on Thursday, May 6.

With a diverse base of customers around the globe, Xiotech consistently ranks among the top vendors in the industry in customer satisfaction ratings.

Sponsored by the University’s Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships, the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program brings successful entrepreneurs to campus to share their experiences with faculty and students.

During his campus visit, Atkinson, who is a UD alumnus, will conduct a lunchtime lecture from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Rodney Room of the Perkins Student Center. The lunch and lecture are free and open to all members of the University community, but space is limited. To reserve a space, please email [oeip-info@udel.edu]. Individuals interested in scheduling an appointment with Atkinson during his visit also should email [oeip-info@udel.edu].

Before joining Xiotech, Atkinson served as vice president of the Storage Software Group for EMC. He also co-founded WysDM Software Inc., a company specializing in data protection management across industries such as financial services, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals. He served as CEO of that company until he sold it to EMC in 2008.

Before co-founding WysDM, Atkinson was senior vice president of engineering and product marketing at StorageNetworks, and he helped the company conduct a successful initial public offering and land clients such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Network Appliance. He also worked for Goldman Sachs, serving as information technology vice president responsible for the firm’s global storage infrastructure. Previously, he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories in a variety of functions for the company’s mainframe and UNIX environments.

Atkinson holds a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Delaware.

The EIR program is designed to create entrepreneurial excitement among faculty, graduate and undergraduate students who would like to learn the ins and outs of establishing a commercial enterprise.