| Duane Ackerman, CEO, BellSouth |
Love 'em or hate 'em, the RBOCs control the last mile to homes and businesses, and Ackerman is standing tall - and alone, for now - down South. |
| Jim Allchin, senior vice president, Personal and Business Systems group, Microsoft |
A behind-the-scenes force at Microsoft, Allchin is the point man for Microsoft's push into the enterprise. |
| Howard Anderson, founder and president, The Yankee Group |
Smart, funny and acerbic, Anderson shakes up the network industry's high and mighty with his writing and speaking. |
| Ken Asbury and Jay Honeycutt, Lockheed Martin Space Mission Systems & Services |
Asbury and Honeycutt led the team that was awarded NASA's Consolidated Space Operations Contract, a 10-year, multibillion dollar deal that will reshape space-based networking.
Fred Baker, chair, Internet Engineering Task Force. As the head honcho at this influential standards organization, Baker is helping to guide the development of the next generation of networks. |
| Jim Barksdale, CEO, Netscape |
AOL's new prize still has plenty to offer enterprise net managers, and Barksdale is still one of the best minds in the business. The big question: Will he stay or will he go now? |
| Brian Behlendorf, key player in the Apache Server Project and open source software movement |
Apache drives many of the world's leading Web sites, and Behlendorf and his allies move Apache forward at a brisk clip. |
| Jeff Bezos, founder, Amazon.com |
Electronic commerce works, period. Bezos proved it, and he continues to show corporations everywhere how the Web can change everything. |
| Jack Blaeser, president, Concord Communications |
Blaeser and company have given customers new and innovative tools for managing the health of their networks. |
| Scott Bradner, pundit and consultant with Harvard University's University Information Systems; area director, IETF |
Bradner remains a thought leader in the Internet community and a key shaper of standards. |
| Jim Breyer, managing partner, Accel Partners |
Breyer and his firm are highly respected for their savvy - and high returns - on network investments. |
| Vint Cerf, senior vice president, Internet architecture and technology, MCI WorldCom |
This elder statesman continues shaping the future of the Internet through his work at the giant carrier and the insights gobbled up by his admirers. |
| Jim Clark, founder and chairman, Healtheon |
What can't this guy do? Silicon Graphics and Netscape founder Clark is going
for a triple with Healtheon, which is using the Internet to smooth communications among health care professionals. |
| Christos Cotsakos, president and CEO, E*Trade |
This electronic trading pioneer rocked the staid financial services industry - and its networks. |
| Edward Crutchfield, chairman and CEO, First Union |
Crutchfield offers living proof that networked systems really do provide a competitive advantage, and he's pressuring the entire financial services industry to go virtual. |
| John Curran, chief technology officer, GTE Internetworking |
Curran, positioned at one of the largest Internet providers, has a most respected name in the Internet industry. |
| Paul Doolan, chief technology officer, Ennovate |
Doolan is a key figure in the development and deployment of Multi-protocol Label Switching, an important Internet traffic engineering technology. |
| Frank Dzubeck, president, Communications Network Architects |
Network executives, analysts and journalists all turn to insider Dzubeck when they want the scoop on the network industry. |
| Kathleen Earley, vice president, Internet Services, AT&T Internet group |
AT&T may not be where it wants to be in Internet services, but the company is getting more aggressive, and Earley is leading the charge. |
| Mory Ejabat, CEO, Ascend |
A major player in frame relay and other key service provider markets, Ejabat is trying to bring quality of service to the enterprise. |
| Bill Esrey, CEO, Sprint |
Sprint may not be as big as AT&T or as aggressive as MCI Worldcom, but it has a full package of local, long-haul and Internet assets that Esrey has astutely pulled together. |
| Kevin Fong, general partner, Mayfield Fund |
Fong and company knew enough to invest in 3Com early on, and they've been helping to fund the leaders in enterprise networking for years. |
| Mike Gaddis, chief technology officer, Savvis |
Gaddis is leading a group trying to bring some structure to the complex world of Internet private peering. |
| John Gage, chief scientist, Sun |
Gage is a big thinker in an industry in which too many people focus only on the bottom line. He's also leading the charge to bring networking into schools. |
| Mark Gibbs, columnist, Network World |
Let's digress for a minute: Gibb's funny, smart-alecky, insightful comments draw a huge response from NW readers and others in the industry. |
| Phil Gibson, director, interactive marketing, National Semiconductor |
Gibson knows extranets, and National Semiconductor is using the Web to cater to customers. |
| Catherine Hapka, CEO and founder, Rhythms NetConnections |
Hapka is a pioneering provider of business-class DSL services. |
| Christine Heckart, vice president, TeleChoice |
A former carrier executive, consultant Heckart's opinions are taken seriously by carriers and equipment makers delivering broadband services. |
| John Hickey, executive vice president, technology services, NASDAQ |
Demanding markets demand best-of-breed networks, and Hickey and team deliver for the nation's busiest stock exchange. |
| Ed Iacobucci, founder, Citrix |
Under Iacobucci's leadership, Citrix has pioneered the Windows terminal style of computing and given enterprise IT executives an alternative to all those fat clients. |
| Bobby Johnson, CEO, Foundry |
One of the early contestants in the Layer 3 switching market, Foundry and entrepreneurial founder Johnson are fighting the good fight against Cisco in the enterprise market. |
| William Kennard, chairman, Federal Communications Commission |
Kennard has taken some lumps during his tenure, but don't underestimate his influence over the telecommunications industry. |
| Steve Kim, CEO, Xylan |
You think Cisco owns the enterprise? Think again. Kim and his quiet company, Xylan, continue to deliver - financially and technologically. |
| Scott Kriens, CEO, Juniper Networks |
You want virtual private nets. You want to do e-commerce. You need a stronger, more robust Internet. Kriens and company will deliver with next-generation routers. |
| Charles Lee, CEO, GTE |
Regulators may let Bell Atlantic and GTE merge, or they may not. In any case, Lee controls a powerful telecom shop with a full package of offerings. |
| Dawn Lepore, chief information officer, Charles Schwab |
Never one to run from a challenge, Lepore made Schwab a leader in online trading and continues to keep the company at the cutting edge of networking. |
| Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun |
He's a provider of servers, driver of Java, partner of AOL, defender of Unix and critic of the Windows way of life. |
| Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minahan, director, National Security Agency |
As head of the government's top security group, Minahan plays a leading role in the controversy over encryption export. |
| Tom Nolle, president, CIMI |
While too many analysts glibly promote the next greatest thing, Nolle brings a more-than-healthy skepticism and years of insight to his ruminations on technology. |
| Hank Nothhaft, CEO, Concentric Network |
Nothhaft and his independent ISP, Concentric, are early leaders in secure virtual private network services. |
| Bill O'Shea, group president, Business Communication Systems and Data Networking Systems, Lucent |
O'Shea is pulling together an increasingly impressive arsenal of weapons for the enterprise fight against Cisco. |
| Jeff Papows, CEO, Lotus |
Microsoft may make a lot of noise about messaging and groupware, but Papows and Lotus continue to win over customers with Notes and Domino. |
| Eric Schmidt, CEO, Novell |
At the beginning, Schmidt must have awakened in the cold dawn wondering if he'd made the right career choice. But he's gotten Novell back in fighting shape, and he's given the once-moribund company a chance at a comeback. |
| Bill Schrader, CEO, PSINet |
As the scrappy, outspoken leader of this independent ISP, Schrader loves to take on the likes of UUNET and Sprint. |
| Pete Solvik, chief information officer, Cisco |
Want a lesson on how to do business and streamline operations via the Web? You couldn't find a better teacher. |
| Gordon Stitt, CEO, Extreme Networks |
There has not been a LAN hardware initial public offering since Xylan went public in 1994, but keep your eye on Extreme. Most of the Gigabit Ethernet/Layer 3 companies have sold out; Stitt and Extreme may go for the gold. |
| Deb Triant Riemer, CEO, Check Point Software Technologies |
She's a bright light in the world of security solutions for enterprise networks. |
| Sol Trujillo, CEO, US WEST |
Out West, Trujillo and company are rapidly ramping up their data services offerings and showing other RBOCs the way. |
| L. D. Weller, chair, Desktop Management Task Force |
Under Weller's direction, the DMTF is making great strides in creating more manageable desktops. |
| Robert Young, CEO, Red Hat |
Linux and the open source software movement even have Microsoft worried, and Young and the Red Hat team are playing a winning hand in bringing Linux to the business world. |
