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MySQL beefs up engineering with Firebird alum

A regarded Firebird database engineer joins MySQL as senior software architect.

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Martin LaMonica Former Staff writer, CNET News
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer covering green tech and cutting-edge technologies. He joined CNET in 2002 to cover enterprise IT and Web development and was previously executive editor of IT publication InfoWorld.
Martin LaMonica

Open-source database company MySQL hired well-regarded database engineer Jim Starkey as senior software architect. Starkey is credited with creating the InterBase relational database and has been active in the Firebird Foundation open-source database community.

The Firebird database is derived from the InterBase code. MySQL also hired Taneli Otala, who will serve as the company's chief technical officer. MySQL shas seen rapid growth in the past three years with growing interest in open-source database. It raised a third round of $18.5 million in funding earlier this month.