Roland "Roel" Pieper (born 1956, Vlaardingen, Netherlands) is a Dutch IT-entrepreneur. Early life and education Pieper was born (April 13, 1956) in Vlaardingen, son of an engineer at a car manufacturer. His father died when Pieper was 20, and on his 18th birthday he suffered a motoring accident which destroyed his sporting career as a player of the Juventus Schiedam basketball team. According to Pieper, both of these experiences instilled him with a certain toughness. Pieper obtained his MSc - Ir - degree from the Delft University of Technology, 1980, in computer science. Career in the United States After graduation, he worked for ten years for Software AG (both in Germany and in the United States), where he became Chief Technology Officer for the US branch. After leaving Software AG he was selected to be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Unix System Laboratories in the United States, a division of Bell Laboratories of AT&T. In 1993, after the resignation of co-founder Ralph Ungermann, Roel became the president and CEO of Ungermann-Bass. Ungermann was tied to Tandem by an earlier White Knight deal and Ungermann resigned after his required term. Roel renamed the company UB Networks while it was a subsidiary of Tandem Computers. Roel restructured UB Networks research investments into ATM technology, which was popular at the time, instead of continuing Ralph Ungermann's earlier successful investments and leadership in Ethernet technology. Ungermann-Bass developed the first Virtual Network Architecture (VNA) in 1993. The ATM business was subsequently sold by Roel to Cisco. UB Networks itself was sold to Newbridge Networks successfully in 1996 after Pieper joined Tandem Computers as CEO. In 1996 Pieper became president and CEO of Tandem Computers where he was instrumental in repositioning the company. Under Pieper's leadership Tandem was sold to Compaq in 1997, and Pieper became a member of the executive board of Compaq. During his time in the US, Pieper gained a reputation as a successful restructurer. Under Pieper's leadership, USL, UB and Tandem Computer were successfully restructured and sold to strategic players in the industry. Career in the Netherlands Pieper returned to the Netherlands in 1998. For one year he was board member of the Dutch electronics giant Philips by invitation of Cor Boonstra, then Philips' president. This involvement ended abruptly in May 1999 when Pieper got involved in the claimed coding technology of Jan Sloot, a connection Pieper made on behalf of