5 People To Watch

When the Armonk, N.Y.-based company decided to make Linux a key strategic technology, it went to the same man. And now Linux is part of the strategy and technology in every unit at IBM, including its vaunted mainframe division.

IBM is now pushing full-speed ahead into "on-demand computing," and it is again turning to its old avenging crusader: Irving Wladawsky-Berger.

Wladawsky-Berger, a Polish immigrant by way of Cuba, was hand-selected by Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano to lead IBM's e-business on-demand effort, a move that virtually guarantees the $90 billion computer giant will put its full muscle into the technology.

>> DOUG BURGUM, MICROSOFT <<
Doug Burgum, a 46-year-old business maverick who gets away with sporting shoulder-length hair while selling accounting software, wants North Dakota to drop the "North" from its name to combat the impression it is a cold, out-of-the-way place.

While Fargo, N.D., is not likely to shake its chilly reputation soon, Burgum could turn it into another epicenter of the Microsoft empire. After selling Great Plains Software to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft for $1 billion, Burgum took charge of one of Bill Gates' "big bets," a bet substantially upped last year with the $1.3 billion acquisition of Navision.

As president of Microsoft Business Solutions, Burgum is now charged with turning the $600 million business unit into a $10 billion enterprise over the next 10 years and, in the process, drive small and midsize companies to base their businesses on the .Net platform. In essence, his unit's applications are to .Net what Microsoft Office is to Windows.

Can he pull it off? Microsoft Business Solutions partners are certainly hoping so. "To the reseller community, he's kind of a hero," says Ed Kwan, managing partner of Expert Technology Associates, Redwood City, Calif. "He's the person to watch because of what I call the big bets within Microsoft."

>> JONATHAN SCHWARTZ, SUN <<
Before Jonathan Schwartz took the helm last July, Sun Microsystems' software division was a nebulous group. That's not the case anymore. Under the direction of Executive Vice President Schwartz, the Sun software group is showing a newly united front.

Schwartz, Sun's former chief strategy officer, is responsible for Sun's entire software line,from storage software to Java middleware to Sun's crown jewel, its Solaris operating system. In 2002, Sun stated its intention to take on a host of competitors, from Sun's main nemesis, Microsoft, to longtime partner BEA Systems, in categories ranging from a new, open-source desktop OS to Web services-enabled Java middleware. Sun also began bundling Sun ONE software,including its app server and directory server,into its Solaris OS, a trend that will continue in 2003 until its entire Sun ONE line is baked into the OS. In 2003, Sun, Santa Clara, Calif., plans to release a slew of new software including the much-anticipated Linux-based OS, code-named Mad Hatter, in a bundle with hardware to try to wrest market share from Windows XP.

It's a daunting task, to be sure, especially since Sun is known for being anything but savvy at software. But Schwartz, who often appears side by side with Sun Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy to preach Sun's message, seems to be the right man for the job. "He's the engineer who can talk, which is a deadly combination," says Curt Stevenson, vice president of business development at solution provider Back Bay Technologies, Boston.

>> CHRIS STONE, NOVELL <<
When Microsoft shipped Windows 2000, most industry pundits declared Novell dead. Two years later, under the more marketing-savvy management of Vice Chairman Chris Stone, however, the Provo, Utah, software company is holding its own. Stone has taken a decidedly aggressive approach to capitalizing on Novell's technology assets, including its eDirectory services and cross-platform Internet services, and Novell has been returning to its channel-savvy ways.

The result: In its fiscal fourth quarter ended October, Novell's software sales were up 4 percent to $225 million while consulting services revenue dropped 5 percent. No wonder most Platinum partners seem pretty pleased with the new activity at Novell with Stone, 45, at the helm.

>> ROBERT HUANG, SYNNEX <<
Can Synnex Information Technologies, Fremont, Calif., catch Ingram Micro and Tech Data? CEO Robert Huang laughs at the notion. "Time will tell. As long as we work at our business, we'll be all right," he says.

Being patient and working the business is just what Huang has been doing over the past two decades, since founding the distributor in 1980. Along the way, the long-tenured channel executive has overtaken a host of rivals by playing his cards conservatively, keeping costs down and relying mostly on internal growth.

Last year, however, Huang sealed Synnex's claim to being the No. 3 broadline distributor, with $3.8 billion in sales, by acquiring Gates/Arrow, License Online and Novitech. Even though Huang pulled back on an IPO, Synnex's name now frequently pops up during other distributors' earnings calls. "Synnex is a very tough competitor, and they've emerged a strong No. 3 in the industry," Tech Data Chairman and CEO Steve Raymund recently told analysts.