Boris Jerkunica

Boris Jerkunica
Born c. 1966 (age 49–50)
Croatia
Education Emory University (1987)
Occupation entrepreneur

Boris M. Jerkunica[1][2] is a native of Croatia who lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and two daughters. He has founded or co-founded several companies including Software Builders International, NetZIP, ZivVa/Vocalocity and Atlanta Silverbacks Park. He is currently the co-owner and chairman of Atlanta Silverbacks which consists of Atlanta Silverbacks FC, Atlanta Silverbacks Suwanee Indoor and Atlanta Silverbacks Park, a soccer facility consisting of a 5,000 seat stadium plus three international size soccer fields and a restaurant. He is also the largest individual shareholder and Board Member of Vocalocity, Inc.

Jerkunica moved with his family to Atlanta in 1975 while he was still in elementary school. He graduated from Emory University in 1987 with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science. While at Emory, he received All-American honors and still holds both the all time scoring and assist records in soccer for the school.[3] From 1987 to 1992, he worked for IBM as a software architect.[4]

In 1992, Jerkunica started his first software business, Software Builders, which developed client/server e-commerce software for companies such as IBM, Thomas Publishing, etc.[5] He sold the company in 1997.

In 1996, Jerkunica co-founded Netzip, Inc. (however, the netzip.com website identified the company name as Software Builders International until 1999).[6][7] The company developed the NetZIP product that pioneered the download market. Netzip, Inc. was purchased by RealNetworks in January 2000.[8][9] NetZIP download technology and its development team was spun out into MusicNet, a joint venture between RealNetworks, AOL, Sony, and BMG, whose charter was to distribute music legally over the internet. Boris served as CTO of MusicNet from 2000 to 2001.

In September 2003, Jerkunica co-founded Zivva (now Vocalocity, Inc.), where Jerkunica served as CEO from 2005 through 2009. ZivVa/Vocalocity helped pioneer the VoIP Hosted PBX market and is one of the leaders in that market today. Vocalocity was named to Inc 500 fastest growing companies two years in a row - 2011 & 2012.

References

  1. ↑ Emory Sports Hall of Fame
  2. ↑ US patent 5802520, Boris M. Jerkunica & David G. Synder, "System and method for manipulating compressed files", published 1998-09-01, assigned to Software Builders International
  3. ↑ "Kicking Grass". Emory Magazine. Summer 2011.
  4. ↑ Boris Jerkunica. BusinessWeek.
  5. ↑ "Software Builders Announces New Internet-Specific ZIP/UNZIP Utilities". Business Wire. May 20, 1997.
  6. ↑ "About Software Builders International". Archived from the original on 1999-04-23.
  7. ↑ "About Netzip, Inc.". Archived from the original on 2000-02-29.
  8. ↑ "Acquisition History". RealNetworks. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
  9. ↑ "Netzip Inc. acquired by RealNetworks". Atlanta Business Chronicle. January 25, 2000.


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