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Martell is first director of Vermont software group

Burlington Vt. - Patrick Martell is just now rolling up his sleeves as the first executive director of the Vermont Software Developers' Alliance, but the three-year old group has already laid out the groundwork so Martell could hit the ground running.

"I don't see this as a startup," he said. "They've really done a lot of work laying the foundation."

Martell said he's been spending his first month on the job meeting with member companies and potential member companies, as well as state legislators. He called the experience "quite interesting, a very good challenge."

One of those challenges, he said, is keeping the member companies staffed.

"It's not that they're getting a lot of applicants that are untrained," he said. "It's getting enough applicants."

Hiring software engineers to an area so close to -- and yet so far from -- Boston and Cambridge presents a challenge, but Martell, who was born in Burlington, Vt., said working in Vermont has unique perks, including easy access to skiing and mountain biking.

"I tell people all the time, 'we live in an area where some of those people vacation,'" he said.

And Vermont doesn't have the roadblocks for software companies it did five or 10 years ago, Martell said.

Martell said broadband and connectivity have been particularly helpful in opening up opportunities for software developers in Vermont.

Martell spent 15 years as the CIO of Al's Snowmobile Parts Warehouse in Newport, Vt., developing internal systems for call centers, real-time inventory and an Internet presence.

"If you can call it doing business on the Internet," he said, characterizing Al's version of e-business, circa 1994, as "enhanced brochures."

During his time at Al's, which sits 4 miles off a paved road in Coventry, Vt., the company grew from four to about 35 people, Martell said, and today online sales account for 40 percent of the company's business.

Martell said he enjoys traveling. He and his family recently visited Prince Edward Island and South Florida. Family travel is important, said Martell, because he wants his two children to see the world up close and not just through the Internet.

"It's pretty important when they can see it for themselves," he said.

Martell also runs the East Coast operations of MAS Inc., a manufacturer of cables for ultrasound machines. Martell owns MAS with his father, who runs the West Coast and offshore operations out of Tucson, Ariz.

Martell said he attended college only briefly, and spent two years in the U.S. Navy stationed in Illinois.