Phil Katz founded PKWARE Inc. in 1986 and was the author of the world-renowned PKZIP/UNZIP programs for data compression. His contributions to the computer industry were many, including work with Bulletin Board Systems and many computer user groups and support forums. His decision to dedicate the .ZIP extension and file format specification to the public domain helped the .ZIP file format become a globally open standard. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Computer Science Engineering program, Katz passed away April 14, 2000.
Earl Pace has been in the IT industry since 1965, starting his career as a computer programmer trainee with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Over the next decade, Pace held a series of increasingly senior positions, culminating with his work as vice president of a financial telecommunications company in Philadelphia. In 1976, he started his own company, Pace Data Systems, a full-service IT firm providing services to banks, financial institutions and other customers from offices in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
In 1975, Pace co-founded Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) in Philadelphia and operated as its president for two years. In 1978, he coordinated the formation of BDPA into a national organization and functioned as its first national president until 1980. Black Data Processing Associates has grown into the largest national professional organization representing minorities in the IT industry.
- The CompTIA A+ Originators are recognized for the work they did in the early 1990s to establish a professional certification that validated foundation level skills for PC repairmen and technicians. Since then more than 825,000 people around the world have become CompTIA A+ certified. CompTIA A+ remains the best credential an individual can have to launch a career in IT.
Members of the CompTIA A+ Originators group include James Brann, IBM (deceased); Richard Bulot, Epson America; Dennis Cagan, Century Computing Marketing; Julie Faster, Apple Computer; Dave Garcia, Digital Equipment Corporation: Mark Hiltz, PC Parts; John Hlavac, Packard Bell; Alan Hupp, Drake Training and Technologies; Gus Kolias, Compaq Computer; Tim Kuhlman, Toshiba America; Terry Morrison, IBM; Dennis O’Leary, IBM; Sara Parks, Apple Computer (co-chair); Joe Ciulla, IBM; Marshall Toplansky, US Robotics; Aaron Woods, Intelligent Electronics; Tricia Wurts, Wurts & Associates; and Bill York, CompUSA (co-chair).
Anne Mulcahy began her Xerox career in 1976 as a field sales representative, working her way up through HR, operations and other management positions until 2001, when she was appointed CEO. At that time, the company was heavily in debt (over $17 billion) and required a major restructuring to stave off bankruptcy. Mulcahy built a new leadership team, cut 30 percent of the least-profitable lines of business and refocused the company on higher-growth operations. She reestablished Xerox's leadership in the print industry with new products and programs, inspiring new partnerships and a stronger channel focus.
Mulcahy retired from the CEO post effective July 1, 2009 and from the chairman position on May 20, 2010. She was one of the few female executives within the Fortune 500 and held a number of leadership positions at Xerox over the years, including president and chief operating officer, president of General Markets Operations, Vice President of Human Resources, Senior Vice President and Chief Staff Officer and Vice President and Staff Officer for Customer Operations.
Mulcahy graduated with a degree in English/journalism from Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y.
In addition to the Xerox board, she is a board director of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc., Fuji Xerox Company, Ltd., Target Corporation, The Washington Post Company, and is the chairman of the corporate governance task force of the Business Roundtable.
Gil Shwed joined Unit 8200, the intelligence arm of the Israeli Defense Forces, at the age of 18 and was assigned the task of securely connecting military computer networks. After leaving the service in 1990, he decided to leverage his experience in code decryption and signal intelligence to develop and release FireWall-1 with several colleagues. As part of their endeavor, the team created and patented its stateful inspection technology and founded Check Point Software Technologies. By 2002, the company had developed a substantial reseller channel and its products were part of the security infrastructure of most Fortune 500 organizations.
Shwed serves as the company's chairman of the board of directors and Chief Executive Officer. Under his leadership, the organization has established offices and industry alliances around the world, including corporate headquarters located in Tel Aviv and Redwood City, CA.
Shwed is a member of the Board of Trustees of Tel Aviv University and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Youth University of Tel Aviv University.
Roy Vallee began his career in distribution back in 1971, stocking shelves while he developed a long-term plan to start his own business. A few years later he joined Hamilton/Avnet Computer and worked his way up through the ranks, including several operations and executive roles within the organization. Vallee was elected to Avnet's board of directors in 1991 and was appointed president and chief operating officer a year later. In 1998, he was appointed CEO and chairman of the board and continued to serve in that capacity until retiring from day-to-day responsibilities in 2011.
Respectfully referred to as "The Senator" by his peers, Vallee is revered by his colleagues as a genuine, well-spoken CEO who cultivates loyalty through his ability to devise and execute complex plans. He has been active in the industry throughout his career, a longtime member of Global Technology Distribution Council and former chairman of its executive committee. As an advocate of the channel, he continues to work closely with solution providers, manufacturers and other distributors around the world to improve the supply chain.
Vallee serves on the Twelfth District Economic Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF), providing information on current and pending developments in the regional and national economy. He also participates in Greater Phoenix Leadership and is a board of director member for Teradyne and Synopsys, Inc.
As CEO of Intel, Dr. Craig Barrett steered the organization through a serious recession and the bursting of the dot-com bubble. After being named the company's fourth president in 1997, he was appointed chief executive officer the following year, a role he would hold until 2005. During his tenure as CEO, Intel made significant investments in research and development, positioning the organization for the challenges and opportunities ahead. His legacy resides in the company's semiconductor manufacturing facilities and its continuing push for advances in education and technology innovation.
Barrett's career at Intel began in 1974 as a manager, leading to corporate vice president in 1984, senior vice president in 1987 and executive vice president in 1990. Elected to Intel's board of directors in 1992, he was named chairman in May 2005 and remained active in that role until his departure from the organization in January of 2009. Barrett attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California from 1957 to 1964, and received his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science.
As president, CEO and Executive Chairman of AutoDesk, Carol Bartz transformed the company from a mid-sized computer-aided design software provider to an international success story. Upon assuming the role of CEO in 1992, she quickly diversified the product portfolio to lessen the company's reliance on a few key markets. Along with that expansion came a greater commitment to the reseller channel and an expanded alliance program, all contributing to a six-fold increase in revenue during her tenure.
Bartz was vice president of worldwide field operations and executive officer of Sun Microsystems prior to joining AutoDesk, and previously held line and sales management positions at the Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M.
As CEO of Yahoo! from 2009 until 2011, Bartz also served on the company's board of directors. She attended William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri, and received a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
As executive vice president of NetApp, David Hitz is responsible for the organization's future strategy and direction. He and fellow company co-founder James Lau shared a desire to simplify data storage, believing that the current systems were too complex for most businesses. So they established NetApp and designed the appliances that would meet their technology goals, and then developed a channel program to deliver them.
Prior to NetApp, Hitz was a senior engineer at Auspex Corporation, an enterprise storage solutions provider, where he was responsible for file systems and microkernel design. He also held engineering positions at MIPS Computer, focusing on file system and I/O subsystem design for the System V kernel development effort.
Prior to launching a career in technology, Hitz was a genuine cowboy. He shares analogies and experiences from managing cattle in many of his business discussions, including his autobiography, "How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business." Hitz graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University.
Dr. Alan Kay is a distinguished visionary and pivotal researcher in modern computers. At Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s, he designed Smalltalk, the first object-oriented programming language, and helped create the prototype PC (Alto). These inventions were later commercialized by Apple in its Lisa and Macintosh computers. Kay is also a GUI (graphical user interface) pioneer, credited as a key member of the University of Utah ARPA research team that designed the precursor to the Internet, ARPANet.
After a decade of development at Xerox PARC, Kay became the chief scientist at Atari, where he remained for three years. In 1984, Kay became a Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc., one of a few select scientists who were given autonomy to pursue creative ideas the company could implement in future offerings. While serving in that capacity, he collaborated with others to develop Squeak, an open source version of Smalltalk.
Kay holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering (computer sciences) from the University of Utah. His Ph.D. was awarded for the development of the first graphical object-oriented personal computer. He earned undergraduate degrees in mathematics and molecular biology from the University of Colorado. Kay is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Arts. He founded and remains president of the Viewpoints Research Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to children, learning, and advanced software development. Kay is also an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Best known as a pioneer of the "big box" retail method, Nathan Morton helped build CompUSA into the nation's first computer superstore. After leading regional and national expansions for other retailers, including Target and The Home Depot, he brought that same expertise to the technology arena.
In just five years, Morton took the company (known then as SoftWarehouse) from two stores and $60 million in sales to a multibillion-dollar national retailer. In addition to the name change, under his guidance, CompUSA completed an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in December of 1991. At the time, most computer stores were independently owned or part of national franchises, so Morton's capital-intensive growth strategy was a significant departure from the norm.
After stepping down from CompUSA in 1993, he went on to lead several other organizations, including Open Environment, Buildnet and StarPower Home Entertainment. Morton was a graduate of the University of New York at Buffalo and was actively involved in CompTIA, serving as the association's chairman for two-terms.
He passed away November 30, 2005.
Since becoming CEO of SAS in 1976, Dr. James "Jim" Goodnight has overseen an unbroken chain of revenue growth. That's a rare occurrence in the IT industry, especially for an organization that sells business analytics software that Goodnight and his colleagues at North Carolina State University originally designed to analyze agricultural research data.
Over the next 30 years, the SAS Institute became one of the largest privately-held corporations in North Carolina with its software used to conduct statistical analysis in clinical pharmaceutical trials and within the insurance and public health fields. Goodnight’s team also developed solutions for data mining, data warehousing, sustainability and business performance management.
He received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in statistics from North Carolina State University. Goodnight was also a faculty member of the university from 1972 to 1976.
Ray Kurzweil is one of the leading inventors of our time, with a hand in developing a number of technologies that have positively impacted the quality of life and livelihood of people throughout the world. Among his creations are CCD flat-bed scanners, omni-font optical character recognition, print-to-speech reading machines for the blind, text-to-speech synthesizers and the first music synthesizer capable of replicating the sounds of orchestral instruments.
Kurzweil is often honored, receiving the MIT-Lemelson Prize (world's largest for innovation), the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton, and 19 honorary doctorate degrees and honors from three other U.S. presidents. He was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which was established by the U.S. Patent Office.
Kurzweil graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a Bachelor's degree in computer science and literature in 1970.
Mike Lazaridis is known in the global wireless community as a visionary, innovator, and engineer of extraordinary talent. He serves as president and co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM), where he is also responsible for the company's product strategy, research and development, and manufacturing operations. While he manages a number of executive duties, the organization's co-founder is a scientist at heart, holding more than 30 patents for his innovations in wireless radio technology and software, including the BlackBerry.
Lazaridis is also passionate about community involvement, and an enthusiastic advocate for education and scientific research. Among his contributions is a $100 million donation to the University of Waterloo to establish an Institute for Quantum Computing and a $150 million investment in the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI), helping each attain higher levels of scientific study.
Lazaridis holds honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Waterloo (Engineering), McMaster University, University of Windsor and Université Laval. He received The Ernest C. Manning Principal Award and was named both a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Officer of the Order of Canada.
A debilitating illness set Frank Mogavero on the path to entrepreneurship, spurring him to create what would eventually become Data Systems Worldwide (DSW) in 1971 with his life savings of $300. Initially a reseller of used accounting machines, he built one of the most respected solution provider organizations in the world by adapting to the needs of business customers. Mogavero mastered the transition process, moving from a focus on accounting equipment to providing datacenter services, eventually opening a line of retail stores to sell and service PCs. Those changes continued in 1989 when he consolidated the DSW retail operations and re-focused the company's resources to support business networking solutions and consulting services.
As one of the founders of the AMDA (Accounting Machine Dealers of America, renamed Association of Minicomputer Dealers later), Mogavero played an instrumental part in developing the industry's first "Blue Book." He was also a founding member of APC Open, an organization of UNIX resellers.
Mogavero graduated with an Associate's degree from Los Angeles City College and received a Bachelor's degree in Marketing and Accounting from UCLA in 1957.
Charged with helping Toshiba re-enter the U.S. PC market in 1983 after previous attempts had failed, Atsutoshi Nishida and his team dissected earlier mistakes and researched what consumers wanted. That work led them to develop a computer with a clamshell case, an LCD and IBM-compatible features. The T1100 was hailed as the first commercially viable laptop, measuring approximately 12 inches square, 2.5 inches thick and weighing just over nine pounds. Toshiba's first notebook computer was a milestone, spurring what has become a multi-billion dollar industry in mobile technologies.
Nishida served as Chief Executive Officer of Toshiba from 2005 to 2009, when he was appointed chairman of the board. During his tenure as CEO, he made several significant investments, including the purchase of majority interest in Westinghouse and Fujitsu's hard drive business, in addition to major increases in its memory chip production capabilities.
Nishida graduated with an undergraduate degree in political science and economics from Waseda University and a Master's degree in law and politics from the Graduate School for Law and Politics at the University of Tokyo.
In addition to the individuals above, several organizations, groups and inventions have been inducted in the IT Hall of Fame, including: