"We saw the promise of Linux early at Credit Suisse First Boston, so I am excited to be able to make a personal contribution to help drive this disruptive technology by participating on OSDL's board of directors," said CSFB's former managing director and Global CIO, Frank J. Fanzilli Jr., as it was announced last week that he'd be joining the board of directors of the Open Source Development Labs.

''Frank brings invaluable enterprise customer experience to our board and he was also a pioneering champion for Linux at CSFB, overseeing the deployment of one of the first production Linux systems on Wall Street,'' said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. ''His understanding of IT organizations as well as his strategic technology and business relationships will be enormously helpful to the board as OSDL works to advance Linux in the enterprise.''

''As a former CIO, Frank brings important end user expertise and key insights to the OSDL Board,'' said Ross Mauri, OSDL Chairman and general manager of e-business on demand at IBM. ''We look forward to his contribution to OSDL's mission as a board member and advisor.''

At CSFB, Fanzilli presided over information technology at the global investment bank during the firm's most significant expansion, defining the bank's technology architecture.

He led an IT organization of more than 4,000 people with an annual budget approaching $2 billion at its peak. In addition to his role as Global CIO, Fanzilli also served as CIO of Europe for CSFB, head of Global Applications Development, and was a member of the bank's IT Executive Board in Zurich. Prior to CSFB, Fanzilli began his career at IBM where he managed systems engineering and software development for Fortune 50 accounts.

He retired from CSFB in 2002 after 18 years of service but remains very active in the technology industry, serving on the board of public software company Interwoven and on the boards of two private companies, CommVault and nLayers. In addition, Fanzilli was a PeopleSoft board member. He also serves as a venture advisor to several venture capital firms, including Allegis Capital, FOCUS Ventures and Partech International.

''I welcome the opportunity to work with customers, vendors and the development community on initiatives to strengthen Linux,'' Fanzilli declared.