By Ann Bednarz and Julie Bort
Network World, 12/24/01

The economy dashed many a network hope this year but buoyed as many others. In acknowledgement of the industry turbulence and new business conditions, we did not place perennial favorites such as Cisco CEO John Chambers and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on our annual most powerful vendor executives' list. As the heads of network powerhouse companies, their power goes unquestioned. Rather than rehashing their prowess, we focused on the lesser-known people who lead promising niche markets or those charged with executing top vendors' critical plans.

Pekka Ala-Pietila
PRESIDENT, NOKIA

Ala-Pietila is perhaps the most powerful champion of the wireless Web. Seeing it as the future for growth at Nokia, he's thrown the company's considerable engineering prowess at it from every angle: phones, Java development, security, standards, wireless LANs and other network equipment (Nokia has some 20,000 engineers on its payroll.) Along the way, he's made Nokia a quiet infrastructure powerhouse.

Marc Benioff
FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, SALESFORCE.COM

Customer relationship management  software is hot, but expensive. Enter Benioff and his ASP-model salesforce.com, an alternative he claims is priced at about 10% of the total cost of ownership of a software package. Benioff learned the ropes at Oracle, his last position as a senior vice president. But Benioff doesn't fit the ruthless Oracle-executive mold — he once even won the True Friend of the User Community Award from Oracle's International User Group.

Bill Coleman
FOUNDER AND CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, BEA SYSTEMS

Coleman, a 27-year industry veteran, brings the get-there-first-and-stay-there attitude he learned as chief of satellite operations in the U.S. Air Force to his business endeavors. This summer, he added another first-to-market to his bragging rights by shipping a version of the WebLogic application server that supports Web services standards. This helped cement WebLogic's place as the No. 1 Java 2 Enterprise Edition Web application server, with 37% of installations, according to Meta Group. Coleman, who handed over the CEO hat to co-founder Alfred Chuang in October, now concentrates on executing his vision for Java development. That includes finding ways to compete with big-league software players Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Sun.

Dave Dorman
PRESIDENT, AT&T

Just one year ago, Dorman became AT&T president, a position most seasoned telecommunications veterans would jump at given the chance. And now it seems he's poised for even more power. C. Michael Armstrong has indicated that he'll likely retire as CEO in 2002, and most industry watchers consider Dorman next in line for that job. (Read full profile)

Sandra England
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGIC RESEARCH, NETWORK ASSOCIATES

In November, Network Associates' PGP unit got the ax, with products such as the Gauntlet Firewall getting snuffed out or moved into other product groups. But the fate of that group's head, England, was not dire at all. In fact, she's taken on the critical role as technology scout, seeking out potential acquisitions and strategic partnerships while overseeing the company's research organization. The poised England frequently makes rounds on the speakers' circuit and has testified before Congress on the impact of viruses.

Henry Fiallo
CEO, ENTERASYS NETWORKS

Fiallo is making the most of Enterasys' fresh start as a Cabletron spinoff. He's pushed Enterasys into garnering 33.2% of worldwide modular Layer 3 ports shipped for the third quarter of 2001, according to Dell's Oro Group. The rise of respect for Enterasys has much to do with Fiallo's past as a CIO, a post he held at Cabletron, and before that at power company Entergy Services. The skills of vending a product are not the same as consuming it, but when an executive can meld the two successfully, power is the result. Fiallo has the markings of one who can do so.

Mark Floyd
PRESIDENT AND CEO, SIEMENS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

If ever a door to the U.S. telecommunications equipment business stood open, it does now, and Floyd aims to stride through it. A highly regarded network entrepreneur, he joined Siemens ICN in April with the company's acquisition of Efficient Networks, which he founded and led. When the board appointed him CEO five months later, they made his orders clear: Restructure the $2 billion telecom equipment provider to grab more of the U.S. market while Lucent and other competitors are weak. Floyd has restructuring experience on his side. Three years after starting Efficient, he shifted its focus from ATM switches and routers for computer vendors to DSL devices for users.

Russ Holt and Randy Groves
CO-VICE PRESIDENTS, DELL'S ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS GROUP

Dell is giving the enterprise server market a double-whammy in Holt (right) and Groves. Holt, the former vice president and general manager of Dell's Storage Systems Group, is credited with turning Dell's storage into a $1.5 billion business, largely by declaring network-attached storage a commodity market and pricing accordingly. Groves, the former vice president of Dell's High Volume Server Systems Group, helped lead Dell to its No. 1 position in Intel-based servers in the U.S. A 21-year IBM veteran before joining Dell in 2000, Groves was responsible for developing IBM's Netfinity line.

Sanjay Kumar
CEO, COMPUTER ASSOCIATES

Any CEO who takes over for the founder is straddling a bucking bronco. But Kumar held onto his mount during his first full year, despite a bitter proxy fight initiated by a major investor for board control. If that investor had won the fight, he presumably would have axed Kumar and Chairman Charles Wang. Kumar is exerting his influence by trying to reverse CA's bully image. This year Kumar addressed, at least in part, long-standing complaints on licensing practices. He created an option to long-term software licenses in the form of a flexible ASP model with monthly fees.

Mike Lazaridis
FOUNDER, CO-CEO AND PRESIDENT, RESEARCH IN MOTION

The technical visionary behind RIM, Lazaridis shepherded the popular BlackBerry wireless device into the corporate market, where it's been met with almost cult-like devotion. As of October, RIM claimed more than 12,000 corporate customers, many of them using the technology to deliver customized applications to mobile workers. A consummate engineer, Lazaridis holds several patents for software code and wireless technology and even has an Emmy for designs in computer film-editing equipment.

Toni Li
FOUNDER AND CHIEF SCIENTIST, PROCKET NETWORKS

Li is the golden boy of network engineering, having helped architect some of Cisco's and Juniper Networks' prize routing technologies. Industry watchers expect Li to take on his former employers with the routing technology they believe is under development at Procket, one of Network World's 10 start-ups to watch in 2001. 

Drew Major
CTO, VOLERA

Major has long claimed a place among network industry visionaries. As the creator of NetWare, he was the guiding force behind all Novell technologies. He has since turned his attention to caching through Volera, spun off from Novell in February.  Major has a loyal user following and many believe his caching products will eventually become as popular as NetWare. Besides his work at Volera, Major is funding a secretive company called XLON Technologies that is creating ways to move multimedia and other large files quickly across the 'Net.

Mario Mazzola
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, CISCO

Mazzola holds one of the most critical roles coming out of Cisco's reorganization into major technology groups. He's coordinating development efforts across all 11 of those groups, finding synergies across a broad product line and directing the massive resources available to Cisco. (Read full profile)

John McHale
FOUNDER, CEO AND CHAIRMAN, TIPPINGPOINT TECHNOLOGIES

McHale is one of those multiple-start-up success stories. He founded Ethernet vendor NetWorth, which Compaq bought in 1995. He followed that with NetSpeed, a DSL company he sold to Cisco in 1998. He's back to try his hand with TippingPoint Technologies, which offers a package of network products, open development tools and hosted services that let service providers deploy new networks and services quickly. TippingPoint is selling into a hurting market and is financially struggling. Still, if anyone can make the company work, the golden-touch McHale can. He moonlights as a partner with venture capitalist firm Austin Ventures, known for seeding companies such as SynOptics and EMC spinoff McData.

Joe Nacchio
CEO, QWEST COMMUNICATIONS

Nacchio's star has risen so fast and so high that in 2001 he took on the people that make most CEOs quiver: financial analysts. Last summer, three Morgan Stanley analysts questioned the company's accounting practices. No kowtowing or peacemaking for Nacchio; on a conference call with the financial community he angrily — and loudly — defended Qwest. The horns-forward Nacchio is the image forever locked in our imagination. Even though the debt-burdened Qwest is struggling to turn a profit, Nacchio's guts seem well-matched with his business acumen.

Dave Roberson
COO, HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS

Roberson has been the deal maker and execution man in HDS' conversion into a storage powerhouse. Roberson, a 20-year HDS veteran, led the Hitachi subsidiary from its roots as a traditional Japanese manufacturing company into an American-style vendor of products and services. In August, he harvested one of the heftiest fruits of that change, when HDS struck a multibillion-dollar deal that has Sun reselling Hitachi storage products and the two co-developing high-end storage for the data center and investing in support centers.

Ray Ozzie
CEO, GROOVE NETWORKS

Despite receiving loads of accolades and attention, Ozzie, of Lotus Notes fame, is notoriously polite. Today, Groove Networks and its peer-to-peer collaboration platform has put Ozzie back in the spotlight. Ozzie gives velocity to Groove, named one of Network World's 10 start-ups to watch for 2001. The company signed on 200 partners within six months of shipping in March and some big-name enterprise customers.

Sam Palmisano
PRESIDENT AND COO, IBM

Twenty-eight years at Big Blue and Palmisano is poised to take over the top spot that observers say is sure to open when CEO Lou Gerstner's contract expires in March.  At 60, Gerstner is at the age when all senior IBM executives have retired over the past 30 years.  Palmisano has been Gerstner's right-hand man since Day 1, and long considered his heir-apparent.

Jerry Parrick
CEO, YIPES COMMUNICATIONS

Parrick would be the stereotypical entrepreneur, a cross between an inventor and an engineer, if he weren't a proven businessman with a decade-long track record. He is known for building one data organization after another, first at Pacific Bell, then US West and then Nokia. Now if Parrick can avoid the cash crunch that poisoned the competitive local exchange carrier industry, he has a shot at creating a serious Ethernet services competitor.

Greg Reyes
CEO, BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS

Reyes has proven himself to be the right man for creating a world-class competitor out of a start-up. Following his aspiration to be the CEO of a major technology company, he joined Brocade in 1998. At $24 million in sales, Brocade wasn't that large, so Reyes made it so, guiding the company to $513 million in fiscal 2001. He made a decent profit while doubling investment in research and development. In the process, he snatched up more than 60% of the Fibre Channel hub and switch market, according to research firm IDC.

Eric Rudder
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPER AND PLATFORM EVANGELISM, MICROSOFT

Rudder heads the first and arguably most crucial step in Microsoft's .Net program. He must educate, convert and nurture more than 6 million developers on .Net, the bet-the-company strategy to deliver software as a set of services over the Internet that Rudder spent four advisory years helping Gates devise. (Read full profile)

Bruce Schneier
FOUNDER AND CTO, COUNTERPANE INTERNET SECURITY

Encryption guru Schneier has long been a power to reckon with in security circles. He designed the Blowfish and Twofish encryption algorithms, has penned six books, including one used as a cryptography textbook, and has openly criticized Microsoft and other software vendors for releasing unsafe code. Counterpane, a 24-7 security monitoring service, is his attempt to practice what he preaches. He envisions his security monitoring service as a way out of the software security patch treadmill. Counterpane has grabbed several significant reseller partners, including Cisco and NEC Business Network Solutions.

Ivan Seidenberg
CO-CEO, VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS

In July 2002, Seidenberg gains sole control of the aggressive regional Bell operating company. Ever ambitous, he is concentrating on making Verizon a long-distance powerhouse by winning Federal Communications Commission approval to offer long-distance services in states where Verizon is the incumbent carrier.  (Read full profile)

Tom Siebel
FOUNDER AND CEO, SIEBEL SYSTEMS

Siebel's drive has placed the company on top of the important CRM software market, an area growing despite the anemic economy.  Aggressive and arrogant, Siebel is a graduate of the Larry Ellison school of management. At Oracle from 1984 to 1990, he was among Oracle's top salespeople, useful experience for the CRM business. Siebel is now attempting to match his success in CRM with employee relationship management software.

Ben Waldman
VICE PRESIDENT, MOBILE DEVICES DIVISION, MICROSOFT

As wireless devices grow in complexity and usefulness, Microsoft has a whole new client to dominate. Success rests largely with Waldman, charged with crafting the Pocket PC strategy. He came to this post in January 2000 after a string of accomplishments for other Microsoft divisions, including at the Macintosh unit he created in 1996. There he helped Office 98 become the platform's most popular office suite and Internet Explorer and Outlook Express to be bundled standard on the Mac. Waldman has declared that he will extend more desktop functionality to the Pocket PC, aim it at business users, and eliminate the need for a separate wireless Internet.