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By Elliot Markowitz
CONTENTS
  • Editor's Letter

  • Industry Hall Of Fame Introduction

  • Steve Ballmer General Patton Of Software

  • Paul Brainerd Desktop Publishing's Creator

  • Rod Canion The Entrepreneur Behind Compaq

  • Donald Estridge Artictect Of IBM's PC Strategy

  • Bill Gates Icon Of The Information Age

  • Andrew Grove The Driving Force Behind Intel

  • William Hewlett The Original Garage Genius

  • Steve Jobs The Man Behind The Macintosh

  • Mitch Kapor The Visionary Behind Lotus 1 - 2 - 3

  • Chip Lacy Distribution's Kingpin

  • Jeff McKeever When He Talks, The Industry Listens

  • Bill Millard The Father Of The Reseller Channel

  • Ray Noorda Solver Of The LAN Problem

  • Edward Raymund Distribution's Early Dynamo

  • Alan Shugart Pioneer Of The Disk-Drive Frontier

    		•  "The purpose is to honor selected individuals for thier impact on the industry...."

    t's hard to imagine any industry that has impacted the world as much as the high-tech industry. Because of the PC, application and networking software, mobile computers, way on up to servers, enterprise systems, LANs, WANs, database warehouses, the Internet and so on, the world is moving at light speed.


    And the individuals responsible for kick-starting the process and laying the foundation for the new Information Age are remarkable people who deserve to be recognized for their outstanding accomplishments. That is why CRN, along with the Computer Museum, has created the Industry Hall of Fame. The purpose is to honor selected individuals for their impact on the industry and, therefore, the world. CRN is inducting 15 executives who clearly have left their mark on the computer industry. We decided to choose 15 individuals to coincide with our 15 years of publishing experience.

    In addition to this special issue dedicated solely to these executives, the Computer Museum in Boston will display our Industry Hall of Fame cover in its "Wizards And Their Wonders" exhibit. As part of the display, the museum will rotate a plaque of each executive who has been inducted.

    But selecting just 15 individuals was not an easy task. There are thousands of men and women who have made their mark on the industry. But like any Industry Hall of Fame, only the truly great ones get the glory. Even so, CRN initially started with a list of nearly 50 potential inductees, narrowed it down to 30, then 20 and then 15. But we truly feel these selected individuals--Steve Ballmer, Paul Brainerd, Rod Canion, Don Estridge, Bill Gates, Andrew Grove, William Hewlett, Steve Jobs, Mitch Kapor, Chip Lacy, Jeff McKeever, Bill Millard, Ray Noorda, Edward Raymund and Alan Shugart--are the original bricks and mortar of this industry. Their achievements brought this industry forward at a blinding speed.

    Ballmer is responsible for Microsoft's crisp and dedicated channel strategy, while Gates is the visionary and the man with the original business plan to build the world's most successful software company. Brainerd brought desktop publishing to the masses, Canion made us mobile with the first real luggable and Shugart pushed disk-drive technology to the outer limits.

    Estridge broke every IBM sacred rule imaginable to get the vendor into the PC business, while Grove pushed Intel into the microprocessor arena. Hewlett gave us Silicon Valley and the "HP Way," Jobs gave us Apple and the Mac, and Kapor made accounting as easy as 1-2-3.

    Lacy developed methods of distribution that set the industry standards, while McKeever has steered MicroAge through every hairpin turn for more than two decades. Without Millard, there may have never been a ComputerLand and without Raymund there would be no Tech Data--and the VAR channel may not have grown to the level that it has. And without the VAR channel, where would Noorda have looked to establish Novell's CNE program?

    Yes, all of these individuals deserve to be honored for making their dreams a reality and for having the courage to change the world, one step at a time.
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