Content area
Full text
Mark Cattini was in his kitchen in his London home one Friday night in October 1997 when his cell phone rang.
It was John Cavalier, MapInfo Corp.'s CEO and president. Cattini was general manager of MapInfo UK Ltd. at the time.
"Would you consider working in the U.S.?" Cavalier asked.
"I suppose so," Cattini replied.
That was the beginning of Cattini's journey to the United States and eventually to the top of one of the region's most successful companies: MapInfo, which provides locationbased software and services.
Cattini, now 39, had been with the company just two years when that call came. He had come to MapInfo from Lotus Development Corp., where he had been for nine years. As national account manager, he was running Lotus' U.K. operation. He left for an opportunity to become MapInfo's UK general manager. A year later, his responsibilities included all of Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
When Cattini arrived in North Greenbush for a meeting with the MapInfo executive team in 1997, Cavalier said he was considering making some changes in the company's U.S. sales organization. He wanted Cattini to come and run the sales and consulting operations.
I didn't have a lot of time to think about it," Cattini said.
He caught the red eye back to London, arriving Friday morning.
"It was a lot to take in," he said. But after talking it over with his wife, they decided, "Why not?"
He told Cavalier Monday morning and became vice president...