Prior to striding into the world of electronic trading, Lepore led
major reorganizations of Schwab's computing platforms and its IS department
as well, all in an effort to make the company more responsive to change.
Lepore has pushed to make information more accessible - and better
organized - for customer service representatives. She's also pushed the
boundaries by using voice response technology to automate trading.
Lepore has been quoted as saying that Schwab uses technology
opportunistically, 'to help us get out in the market first.' The new
opportunity is the Web, and thanks to Lepore, Schwab once again has staked
an early claim.
Terry Matthews
Chairman and CEO, Newbridge Networks Corp.
Newbridge is on the move, thanks to the maneuvers of Terry Matthews.
For one thing, Matthews recognizes the power of partnerships. At
NetWorld+Interop 97 last fall, Newbridge announced an alliance with 3Com
and Siemens AG to provide end-to-end managed IP services for carrier and
enterprise networks.
The effort, called Carrier Scale Internetworking (CSI), was hailed by
analysts as a compelling reason for carriers and enterprises to buy
equipment from these three companies.
Indeed, 3Com could help Newbridge crack more enterprise sales. That
would be gravy on top of the significant frame relay and ATM WAN switch
business Newbridge already is winning in the carrier core, thanks to its
pre-CSI alliance with Siemens.
There is serious momentum behind Newbridge's WAN switches right now,
especially its MainStreetXpress 36170 Multiservices Switch. There were more
than 60 carrier and enterprise customers for the MainStreetXpress 36170
switch in the first quarter of fiscal 1998 alone, including 12 new
customers. And Newbridge continued to grow its frame relay-over-ATM
revenues significantly faster than the overall frame relay market growth
rate during that quarter.
With results like that, and the potential of the CSI alliance,
Matthews is positioning Newbridge as a top supplier of high-speed networks.
Rich McGinn
President and CEO, Lucent Technologies, Inc.
After a legacy as AT&T's voice equipment arm, Lucent has set its
sights on data networking and Rich McGinn is pulling the trigger.
The company's latest move into data networking came three weeks ago,
when it acquired Gigabit Ethernet start-up Prominet Corp. for $200 million.
In September, Lucent was one of seven companies that invested in Juniper
Networks, a start-up developing high-speed routers for the Internet core.
Lucent acquired LAN switch vendor Agile Networks, Inc. last year, and
partnered with Bay Networks
to fill out its multimedia vision.
The company's numbers aren't too shabby either. Lucent recorded a
42.5% increase in earnings per share to 57 cents for the fourth quarter of
fiscal 1997. Revenues increased 17.2% over the same quarter of a year ago,
and revenues from Lucent's three core businesses - systems for network
operators, business communications systems and microelectronics - increased
19.4%.
Analysts now believe Lucent is poised to devote serious resources to
ATM and LAN equipment, including IP switching and routers this year.
McGinn will be the one to decide just how serious those resources are,
and where and how they will be used. He will be the one banking the
company's future growth on data networking.
Scott McNealy
President and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Talk about the bully pulpit.
McNealy has used the force of his personality and the wild popularity
of Java to establish Sun as the archrival of Microsoft, and himself as the
leader of the free non-Microsoft world. He waves Java around as the key to
unshackle users from Microsoft's dominance and as his ticket to bash away
at Bill Gates.
Java got Microsoft's attention. So much so that McNealy sued Microsoft
for breaching its Java licensing contract by disabling the cross-platform
compatibility features of the programming language.
Beyond Java, Sun remains the strongest voice for Unix computing in the
enterprise and a force to be reckoned with in high-end network computing.
NT may take big chunks of the market, but McNealy isn't about to hand over
the enterprise to Bill Gates, as so many other Unix vendors appear to have
done.
The importance of McNealy's power lies not so much in the actual
capabilities of Unix or Java, but in his ability to make users believe that
life without Microsoft may not only be possible, but preferable.
Terrence Milholland
Vice president of
information systems
and CIO, The Boeing Co.
How's this for a purchase order? Boeing just shelled out $124 million
for switching and routing gear from Cisco.
That might indicate just how important networking is to the leading
company in the aerospace industry. And Terry Milholland is the person in
charge of keeping Boeing on the leading edge of networking technology.
Boeing isn't just connecting machines together. It is doing business a
whole new way, thanks to networking. Case in point: Boeing collaborated
electronically with its business partners to build the 777-300, the world's
longest commercial jetliner. Digitized images of the plane's design were
transmitted over high-speed lines for two years until the actual product
took flight last October.
Terry Milholland has harnessed the power of networking. For that, he
makes this year's power list.
Joe Nacchio
President and CEO,
Qwest Communications Corp.
Alex Mandl
Chairman and CEO, Teligent
Talk about regrets. Consider these two the AT&T visionaries that got
away.
Nacchio and Mandl, both
former AT&T executives, are rethinking the way we will network over
landline and wireless nets in the 21st century. Their plans most surely
will come back to haunt their former employer.
Under Nacchio's command, Qwest is building the highest capacity
digital multimedia network in the world, fully harnessing the power of
light.
Mandl is snipping the wires from Nacchio's vision. Teligent is playing
a leadership role in providing broadband, wireless multimedia local
services in key U.S. markets. The 18- to 24-GHz Teligent network will
provide voice, high-speed data, Internet access and videoconferencing
services in the nation's top 31 metropolitan areas.
Teligent's objectives recently were underwritten by a 12.5% equity
stake from Japanese telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.
With their respective visions for broadband networking, Nacchio and
Mandl may be burning Rome while AT&T fiddles.
Eckhard Pfeiffer
President and CEO,
Compaq Computer Corp.
In addition to Intel, Compaq could be the other hardware company that
scares the living daylights out of the Big Four.
Already the industry leader in servers, Compaq has been getting into
networking in a big way. Compaq is poised to enter the Gigabit Ethernet
switch fray with an OEMed version of Extreme Networks' Summit switch.
Compaq's venture into Gigabit Ethernet expands a line of LAN offerings that
already includes 10M/100M bit/sec Ethernet switches and Cisco IOS-based
routers, as well as PCs and servers.
Compaq also has an agreement with Intel to codevelop chips and
software drivers for Gigabit Ethernet.
Additionally, Compaq is looking to add digital subscriber line access
technology to its PCs, a move that could mean the replacement of today's
modems with a truly high-speed alternative. This would complement Compaq's
purchase earlier this year of Microcom, Inc., which gives the company
remote dial-up access concentrators and Windows NT Server remote access
support for its servers.
Combine this formidable array of network offerings with Compaq's
adroitness at pushing volume sales and you have an immediate challenge to
the old guard. Compaq and Pfeiffer could change the pricing models, as well
as the balance of power, in the networking industry.
Michel Roujansky
CIO, Equant
Michel Roujansky can teach us all a little something about networking
because he's responsible for running the world's largest private
international data and voice network.
Equant provides managed data services to 120,000 users in 225
countries. In less than four years, Equant has signed on more than 1,000
multinational corporations for dial-up services.
Users in industries such as travel and tourism, financial services,
oil and petrochemical production and manufacturing rely on Roujansky and
Equant to keep their information flowing quickly and reliably.
Figuring out how to meet the needs of one company is challenging
enough; meeting the networking requirements of hundreds of companies is
truly daunting. Roujansky meets the challenge head-on by knowing the right
mix of frame relay, X.25, LAN internetworking, intranet support, voice,
messaging and electronic commerce for your network.
That's a powerful story, and that's why Roujansky makes this year's
list. |
