BURLINGTON, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 04/16/12 -- Acquia, the enterprise guide to Drupal, today announced that CEO Tom Erickson has been selected to serve as mentor to participating startups at the We Media PitchIt! Conference and Challenge on April 18 at USA Today / Gannett in McLean, VA.

The annual conference brings together media, technology and social visionaries for conversations on the big ideas that drive digital innovation, investment and opportunities for social and economic good. It welcomes startups to demonstrate their projects and consult with experts on topics such as technology, business models, capitalization, audience acquisition and marketing. The conference includes the PitchIt! Challenge finals, in which socially focused startups using media and technology for innovative new ventures pitch their projects in a live competition. Two finalists will each win a $25,000 seed investment and access to the expertise of We Media's mentor network of entrepreneurs, investors and advisors.

Erickson is a software industry veteran with career roots in open source, followed by 30 years of experience with proprietary software companies in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Prior to taking the helm at Acquia in 2008, he served in senior leadership positions at pioneering software companies, including Chief Products Officer at map maker Tele Atlas and CEO of Systinet, a leading provider of SOA tools that was acquired by Mercury Interactive and subsequently HP. He has also served as an advisor and board director at several private companies, including ITKO (acquired by CA Technologies), TaskRabbit, Quickcomm (acquired by Vodafone), VoltDB, GoodData, Offerpop and ExpenseCloud.

Where:
USA Today / Gannett
7950 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, VA 22107

When:
Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM ET

About Acquia™, the enterprise guide to Drupal
Acquia empowers enterprises with the open source social publishing system Drupal. Co-founded by Drupal's creator in 2007, Acquia helps customers manage their growth and scale their online properties with confidence. Acquia's products, cloud infrastructure, and support enable companies to realize the full power of Drupal while minimizing risk, as it has done for nearly 2,000 enterprise customers including Twitter, Warner Brothers, Turner Sports, Intuit, World Economic Forum, Stanford University, Mercedes-Benz and NPR. See who's using Drupal at http://www.drupalshowcase.com, and for more information please visit www.acquia.com or call 888-9-ACQUIA.

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