A Statement of Facts from Albany Democrat Dan Cerutti

The Applyrs Campaign, the Working Families Party, and now a committee funded by Mayor Kathy Sheehan and Treasurer Darius Shahinfar are escalating their dishonest and deliberately misleading efforts to smear my name and record.

These tactics are the opposite of the thoughtful civil discourse we need to improve our city, and reflect a priority of remaining in power over letting voters choose the best candidate to lead Albany. As Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan frequently said: You are entitled to your own opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”

False claim: I am a Republican. The FACTS:

During the 1980s I was registered as a Republican, but I was not involved in politics and my participation in local elections was limited due to frequent relocations. I have never voted for a Republican Presidential candidate. It is interesting to note that Mayor Sheehan and Treasurer Shahinfar were at one point also registered Republicans.

While a resident of Massachusetts for 24 years, I was an independent. Voters in MA do not need to enroll in a party to vote in primaries. After returning to Albany, I re-enrolled in the Democratic Party to more fully participate in politics and give back to my hometown.

False claim: I lost IBM $4 Billion. The FACTS:

Slate magazine published a slanted negative article on IBM Watson Health (Slate Watson Health). But the fact is that there is no mention of me because I was never in charge of the Watson Health unit that IBM created through acquisitions. If you Google “general managers of Watson Health”, the facts are clear.

I did lead the original Watson AI commercialization efforts. And later, the Population Health and the technology Platform groups that were part of Watson Health. After retiring from IBM, I was hired by the McKinsey Company and two private equity firms as a subject matter expert to advise them on the purchase of Watson Health assets. Eventually, a private equity firm formed a new company called https://www.merative.com.

False claim: Amulet shut down by a judge; and I destroyed Veridiem. The FACTS:

As CEO of Amulet, I recommended to the board of directors that we curtail investment in Amulet because the Internet explosion changed consumer willingness to pay for information. We parlayed technology developed at Amulet into a new company called Veridiem, whose lead investor was the SAME top-shelf venture investor that had led the investment in Amulet (https://www.venrock.com). They believed and bet on our team again. (https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/veridiem-inc-series-a--2b255a56)

Four years into Veridiem, having spent $16M, I left the company following a dispute with the Board over the strategy of cloud-based software vs. traditional enterprise software. When I left, the company had $14M in the bank and no one was laid off. My successor promised the Board $10M in annual revenue and delivered only $200,000. He was fired and I was called back to consult with Veridiem. The company raised another $11 million (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/veridiem-inc#financials) and was acquired by SAS, a global analytics company (https://sheaco.com/transaction/veridiem-sas-institute/).

It should also be noted that twenty years following that internal dispute, virtually all software is now delivered via cloud models, validating the position I took in 2002.

My campaign will remain focused on facts.

Contact: News@DanForAlbany.com