Portsmouth company’s new CEO says tech is helping to change the world

As published by the NH Union Leader, August 13, 2017

Bruce Chatterley, Senet’s new chief executive officer and president, says he is thrilled to join the company as it helps lead the “fourth industrial revolution.”

“We’re changing the world,” Chatterley said at his office on Market Street in Portsmouth on Wednesday.

Senet is a provider of public, low-power, wide-area networks for long-range Internet of Things applications. Chatterley said the company is creating technologies that allow customers to interact better with the physical world.

For example, Chatterley said, the water industry loses millions of dollars due to leaky pipes every year. Senet can create a monitoring system that automatically reports a problem so it can be fixed immediately.

These applications are limitless, Chatterley said. Senet started with heating oil and natural gas tank monitoring. Now, one customer uses its technologies to digitally monitor and control rat traps.

Chatterley, who is about to turn 55, grew up in Plymouth, Mich., just outside Detroit.

“It was sort of a farm town with a clock tower and a movie theater,” Chatterley said.

Chatterley majored in economics at Central Michigan University, and while studying abroad at the University of Madrid in Spain, he developed an interest in international business.

As a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C., Chatterley began working for IBM. Eventually, he moved into sales and developed a strong customer base in the mid-Atlantic region.

New technologies have always interested Chatterley. He remembers selling the first generation of personal computers, floppy disks and all. Over the years, Chatterley gained experience in business leadership at different companies, and developed a strong track record of rapidly building and scaling worldwide operations and organizational infrastructure in a variety of hyper-growth sectors.

“In my heart, I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve found success at large companies because I focus on the customer and results,” Chatterley said.

Chatterley said that Senet’s success is based on the 50 or so employees who dedicate their careers to the company.

Dave Kjendal, Senet’s chief technical officer and senior vice president of engineering, graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1992. After getting his master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Southern Alabama, he returned to the Seacoast to work with technology and startup companies. He said there are many more opportunities for people interested in technology than there were 15 years ago.

Kjendal said what employees at Senet focus on is the complete connection of the digital and physical world.

“We’re on the cutting edge of a really intense technology,” Kjendal said.

Kjendal also works with students to help them pursue career paths where they can live and work in New Hampshire.

Chatterley succeeds Senet CEO and President George Dannecker, who decided to retire in June after four years with Senet, according to a press release.