John G Adler

Adler was a renowned executive, leader, and pioneer of computer technology, from the engineering of mainframe computers at IBM in 1960 to his appointment as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Adaptec in the mid-1980s. Mr. Adler left a lasting mark on events and people in the San Francisco bay area, from development of the computer systems for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the 1960s, to the growth of Adaptec from a startup company to one of the world leaders in high performance disk storage for computers. A refugee of the Hungarian revolution in 1956, Mr. Adler arrived in the United States and was offered a scholarship by the University of Mississippi. Earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Mississippi in 1960, Mr. Adler began working for IBM, transferring to IBM's Advanced Computing Systems group in California in 1967. In 1970, Mr. Adler was named Sloan Fellow at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, earning a Masters of Business Degree. From 1981 to 1985, Mr. Adler held various senior level positions at Amdahl Corp., a key competitor of IBM founded by former IBM employees. He joined Adaptec as president in 1985 and was appointed CEO in 1986. In 1990, he was appointed chairman of the company's board of directors. John Adler also joined the board of MMC Networks in 1997. He served on the advisory council for the College of Engineering at San Jose State University and was on the advisory board of the Leavey School of Business Administration at Santa Clara University. He is survived by his wife, Cynthia Lewis, his twin sister Julianna Csongor, nephew Robert Csongor, and niece Sandra Bollenbecker. He was preceded in death by his nephew, Randy Csongor.