Ashton-Tate
In June 1982 Cole hired Rod Turner as the director of OEM sales for Ashton-Tate. In a few weeks Turner solved a sales commission plan issue, that had been bothering George Tate for some time, with the top performing salesperson (Barbara Weingarten, now Guerra), and Tate and Cole promoted Turner to be Vice President of world-wide sales three weeks after his initial hire. Turner was approximately the 12th employee of Ashton Tate. Since the company was truly boot-strapped, using no external venture capital, the founders did not make a practice of hiring experienced veterans, and most of the team at Ashton-Tate were young and enthusiastic, but inexperienced. Jim Taylor was responsible for product management in the early days, and worked closely with Wayne Ratliff and the other key developers on dBASE II. In 1982 Perry Lawrence and Nelson Tso were the two developers who were employed at Ashton-Tate, while Wayne Ratliff employed Jeb Long from his royalty stream.
Ashtons
Norman Ashton started his Leeds-based housebuilding business in 1933, and it was incorporated in 1938 as Norman C Ashton Ltd. Following the outbreak of war in 1939, the Company was restricted to contracting for local authorities; it also established a motor repair business. Private housebuilding resumed after the war and when Ashton was floated in 1964 it claimed to be one of the largest housebuilders operating in the West Riding. Growth was only modest thereafter and Ashton was acquired by Orme in 1972.