Most Influential People

Tim Berners-Lee, Chairman, W3.Org

In 1989, while working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, he invented the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing. Before the Web, the Internet was used by researchers to share files via FTP (file transfer protocol). The Web made the Internet attractive to business and consumers, and changed forever the way we gather information. Tim said that when he developed the Web, he had no idea how wildly popular it would become.

Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Computer

His vision was to build something that would change the world and be “insanely great”, and he did, twice. Jobs introduced to the market the GUI (Graphical User Interface), fonts, mouse, and product design. He has influenced every computer product since the original Apple Macintosh, and continues to influence the market with Apple’s G4 Cube and Titanium laptop designs. The new Apple OS X (their new operating system and GUI) will once again move forward the GUI concepts for all other software companies, including Microsoft.

Michael Dell, Chairman, Dell Computer Corporation

Dell Computer started by selling PC’s by mail order. Then they became the first successful manufacturer to sell directly on the Internet. This reduced the cost of PC’s and removed the added cost of retail sales, and caused painful changes in the sales supply chain. Their success was so phenomenal that the whole B to C (business to consumer) market exploded. Companies like Amazon and EBay quickly followed the same path. Recent fallout in the DotCom world is only temporary, as B to C business models will take a bit longer to develop and be accepted by consumers. The hot trend now is B to B (business to business). Eventhough there are many successes happening in this area, it is ironic to note that the B to B effort by Dell Computer failed because their suppliers were not ready.

John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems

The first networking company that helped build the infrastructure for the information age – both the Internet and private networks. Because of their success, many other companies have joined the competition. New product development now comes at a frenzied pace. The race in optical networking will bring huge changes. Networking is the life’s blood of today’s economy.