POTSDAM -- Clarkson University's board of trustees has chosen a technology marketing and business strategy consulting firm's founder to join them on the board.

Raymond L. Skowyra Jr. of Saint Paul, Minn., founder and principal consultant with Summit Associates, will serve on the academic affairs and marketing committees.

Skowyra earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, and a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Summit Associates is a technology marketing and business strategy consulting firm, which has helped companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals to develop and implement marketing and business strategies for the successful launch of new, technology-based products and services.

For the last several years, Skowyra has worked extensively in the information security industry and related computer networking businesses. His other client work has included projects with telecommunications equipment vendors & service providers, Internet services providers, storage networking vendors, and medical device makers.

Prior to Summit, Skowyra was a principal at Regis McKenna Inc., the seminal Silicon Valley technology marketing strategy consulting firm.

Before his consulting career, Skowyra held management positions in sales and marketing at ADC Telecommunications Inc., and engineering and marketing positions in the General Electric Company's turbine and plastics business units and GE's corporate consulting services.

Skowyra serves on the boards of several private companies and has had leadership roles with a number of high-technology industry organizations, such as the Minnesota High Technology Association, the International Engineering Consortium and LifeScience Alley.

He has also worked extensively on small company business issues in Minnesota with the Small Business Development Center at the University of Saint Thomas, where he was also an adjunct professor in the MBA program.

Skowyra has been active in scouting as an adult leader for many years. He is an avid backpacker and winter sports enthusiast.

He and his wife, Marianne Short, have a son, Nicholas, a member of the Clarkson class of 2011.