Top Guns: VARBusiness 500 Executives

Hats off to the men and women who made this exclusive list--they lead the top solution providers in North America. Collectively, these CEOs are all educated, market leaders; but each possesses a special quality that distinguishes them and drives their thirst for excellence.

For some, we've included a quote provided exclusively to VARBusiness about their business goals or philosophy; others told us about a famous person they admire; and for some, we picked an unusual biographical note that reveals an unexpected side. The result, we hope, is a well-rounded snapshot of the elite troupe who runs North America's most successful solution providers.

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No. 1

John Joyce

SVP & Group Executive

IBM Global Services

Age: 51

Years As Group Exec: 1

"I like to think [success] is the ability to observe a situation, break it down and make the changes that drive a business or an organization to higher and higher levels of achievement. I inherited a tremendously successful organization. The mission of my team is to make sure we keep that huge revenue- and profit-machine running."

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No. 2

Michael Jordan Chairman & CEO

EDS

Age: 68

Years as CEO: 2

Jordan believes in getting back to basics to create the turnaround he craves. This calls for the creation of industry-leading technology to be driven by an initiative that will embed 200 vendor partner employees at the EDS campus, and the relentless pursuit of ongoing cost efficiencies.

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No. 3

Bill Green CEO

Accenture

Age: 51

Years as CEO: Less than 1

"People have asked me why I joined the firm--it wasn't to become CEO one day. I went to college, sent in one application, and they said yes and I said yes. I had no idea what I signed up to do. I just wanted a 'real job' to show my parents that they didn't waste their money--and I wanted to buy a Volkswagen. I stay here because I earn huge 'psychic income' because being part of Accenture is being part of something special."

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No. 4

Van Honeycutt

Chairman & CEO

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC)

Age: 60

Years as CEO: 10

Honeycutt's long career at CSC began in 1975, when he was hired as a regional marketing manager. Honeycutt earned a B.S. degree in business administration from Franklin University in Ohio, and completed Stanford University's Executive Graduate Program in 1984.

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No. 5

Ann Livermore

EVP Of Technology Solutions Group

Hewlett-Packard

Age: 46

Years as EVP: Elected evp in 2002 after serving as vice president since 1995. Since May 2004, she has led the Technology Solutions Group.

"The thing that is most important is to deliver against a plan and to meet or exceed customer expectations. That's what I look for in my employees, our partners and myself. One of my heroes is Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who first climbed Mt. Everest."

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No. 6

Robert Stevens President & CEO

Lockheed Martin

Age: 53

Years as CEO: Less than 1

Like other Lockheed Martin top executives, Stevens' background is in engineering, but he has fleshed out his technical expertise by earning a master's degree in engineering and management from the Polytechnic University of New York and, with a Fairchild Fellowship, a master's in business from Columbia University.

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No. 7

Thomas McCausland President

Siemens Medical Solutions, USA

Age: 62

Years as President: 8.5

McCausland says he's proud that Siemens' "combination of innovative medical equipment, coupled with advanced IT and services enables clinical and business outcomes to help our customers achieve unprecedented levels of patient care and revenue growth." He adds that it also "differentiates itself by offering a broad portfolio beyond health care and can provide everything from lighting to building technologies, in addition to medical technology."

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No. 8

Arthur Weinbach Chairman & CEO

Automatic Data Processing

Age: 62

Years As Chairman & CEO: 7

Arthur Weinbach joined ADP in 1980 and has served as an ADP director since 1989. In addition, Weinbach is a director of Schering-Plough Corp. and serves on the boards of New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey Seeds and the United Way of Tri-State.

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No. 9

Ken Dahlberg Chairman & CEO

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)

Age: 60

Years as CEO: 1

Dahlberg took over SAIC from its founder, J.R. Beyster, who reigned over the government IT integrator since it was formed in 1969. Dahlberg is a lifetime member of the Navy League and was inducted into Drexel University's College of Engineering's 2003 Alumni Circle of Distinction.

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No. 10

John McKenna CEO

Siemens Business Services

Age: 42

Years as CEO: 5

Prior to Siemens, McKenna served as CEO at Entex and guided its move to services. When Siemens Business acquired Entex in 2000, the newly formed company kept McKenna in the corner office.

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No. 11

John Edwardson

Chairman & CEO

CDW

Age: 55

Years as CEO: 4

"At CDW, we've always believed in creating our own good news. Our best opportunities come from the relationships we cultivate with customers. And we still see a great deal of untapped growth potential."

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No. 12

Kevin Rollins President & CEO

Dell Services

Age: 52

Years as CEO: Less than 1

Rollins earned his M.B.A. and bachelor's degrees from Brigham Young University. He is active in the American Enterprise Institute and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

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No. 13

Mark Ronald

COO of BAE Systems plc; President & CEO of BAE Systems North America

BAE Systems

Age: 62

years as coo: 3

Ronald has been awarded the title of Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of the valuable services he has provided to further improving cooperation in the U.S.-U.K. defense industries.

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No. 14

James O'Neill

Corporate VP & President

Northrop Grumman Information Technology

Age: 51

Years as CVP & President: 1

O'Neill promised that when he took the job, he would oversee double-digit growth for the defense contractor's technology services division.

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No. 15

Joseph McGrath

President & CEO

Unisys

Age: 52

Years as CEO: Less than 1

Before joining Unisys in January 1999, McGrath was vice president and general manager of then-start-up Xerox Production Color Systems. Before joining Xerox, McGrath was a vice president and service director of Gartner Group.

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No. 16

Greg Brown President of Government & Enterprise Mobility Solutions (GEMS) unit

Motorola's GEMS unit

Age: 45

Years as CEO: 2.5

Brown's years at Micromuse mastering convergence helped prepare him for his role leading Motorola's ongoing government and enterprise-mobility solutions efforts.

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No. 17

Jeff Rich

CEO

Affiliated Computer Services

Age: 44

Years as CEO: 6

Rich told University of Michigan students there were five lessons they would not learn in class: Life is an adventure, plan to have many; there is no such thing as a bad job; what's hot today will not be hot tomorrow; keep first things first; and acquire equity.

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No. 18

Bill Parrett

CEO

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

Age: 59

Years as CEO: 2

"Those at the top of the corporate ladder are becoming more inclusive in the decision-making process, and their temperament is changing," Parrett, the grandfather of three, recently said about changing management styles.

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No. 19

Richard Notebaert

Chairman & CEO Qwest

Communications International

Age: 57

Years as CEO: 3

Notebaert has made recent headlines due to his apparent overwhelming desire to acquire. "On any given day, I can pull reports that tell me the number and percentage of female managers or our percentage of employees over the age of 60. I can tell at a glance that Hispanic individuals represent our largest ethnic minority, that we employ higher percentages of women technicians and male service reps than in the past, and that more than 1,200 Qwest employees are Pacific Island or Asian Americans."

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No. 20

Don Grantham

Executive Vice President of Services

Sun Microsystems

Age: 48

Years as EVP: Less than 1

"In 2004, we were encouraged by the continued gains we achieved in our consulting business and by the growth in our outsourcing business. We continued to maintain a healthy balance sheet and a strong cash position. We have made tremendous progress differentiating ourselves, putting distance between us and our competitors, and carrying the results-oriented, high-performance business message forward. We continue to aggressively drive that message."

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No. 21

Leslie Muma

President & CEO

Fiserv

Age: 60

Years as CEO: 6

"My dream job is the one I have. Being CEO of one of the most respected companies in the country ain't bad."

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No. 22

Ivan Seidenberg

Chairman & CEO

Verizon

Age: 58

Years as CEO: 3

From his relatively unglamorous roots as a cable splicer's assistant, Seidenberg has gone on to help craft the merger of Bell Atlantic and Nynex in 1997, and the Bell Atlantic merger with GTE in 2000.

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No. 23

Harry You

CEO

BearingPoint

Age: 45

Years as CEO: Since March 2005

"I want this to be a year of repair, renewal and investment. My first priority is to rectify the financial-reporting challenges we have been facing. Profitability continues to be a primary focus. Other priorities include hiring, retaining and motivating our employees."

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No. 24

Richard Fennessy

CEO

Insight North America

Age: 40

Years as CEO: Less than 1

Fennessy spent 17 years at IBM before taking the reins of Insight North America, most recently serving as general manager, worldwide, for the ibm.com organization, IBM's direct telesales and Web channel operating throughout the world.

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No. 25

Klaas Wagenaar

Chairman & CEO

Getronics

Age: 46

Years as CEO: 1.5 years

A Dutch national, Wagenaar has spent his life in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States. This international know-how serves him well as the top gun at Getronics, which has 28,000-plus employees in more than 30 countries around the world.