James N. Porter, President of DISK/TREND, Inc., first became involved with data storage products in 1968, when he joined Memorex, serving in a variety of marketing management positions through 1971. After experience with early hand-held calculators at Rockwell International, with the first consumer video tape recorder at Cartridge Television, and with the original computer controlled video editing systems at CMX Systems, a CBS-Memorex joint venture, he began his own management consulting business in 1974.

The DISK/TREND Report, an annual market study of the worldwide disk drive, disk drive array and removable data storage industries, was founded in 1977. Currently, his principal activities include publishing the DISK/TREND Report, consulting with the management of data storage manufactures on strategy issues, and co-sponsoring the DataStorage conferences and annual management forums for the data storage industry. He is a member of the board of directors and executive committee of the International Disk Drive Equipment & Materials Association.