Fran Grigsby

Board Member

Fran Grigsby is an advisor to technology enterprises with a focus on market development and international expansion. Clients have included IBM, One Communications, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and early stage companies. She founded her consulting practice, Next Level International, based on her experience leading technology companies at all stages.

As United States Vice President for Ipanema Technologies, a French application performance company (now Extreme Networks), she led US operations from pre-revenue through launch, partnerships and staffing. She was Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Giganet, a clustering company acquired by Emulex (now Broadcom), joining the company as its fourth employee and playing a leadership role in venture financing, market launch and corporate partnerships.

Ms. Grigsby was also Vice President of Enterprise Networks at Motorola, heading backbone switching and other businesses. At Digital Equipment Corporation, she led the award-winning network server and storage systems businesses, plus customer support and logistics teams. Ms. Grigsby’s education includes MBA and BA degrees from Vanderbilt University and an Executive Certificate at INSEAD Graduate School of Management in France. She has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and a speaker at Babson College and Northeastern University executive programs. Harvard Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter featured her as an innovative leader in her bestseller “The Change Masters”.