2007 Industry Hall Of Fame

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote that perseverance is a great element of success. "If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody," he said. It's safe to say this year's inductees into the CRN Industry Hall of Fame have suffered their fair share of calloused knuckles and hoarse voices throughthe years. Individually, their paths to success were quite different, but collectively, they shared the same drive to overcome obstacles and become some of the most successful and influential leaders in the IT channel.

When Anne Mulcahy took the reins at Xerox, the company was seriously in the red. Following her famed "Partner or perish" rallying cry, the company last year topped $1.2 billion in profit and has regained its reputation as an innovative technology leader. Roy Vallee's rise to success was more gradual, but no less impressive. The chairman and CEO of Avnet began his distribution career 36 years ago counting parts in a warehouse. Now he counts warehouses around the world as head of the $15 billion supply chain giant. Meanwhile, Gil Shwed's career truly came full circle at the May 22 Hall of Fame ceremony at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Just 13 years earlier, at the same Network+Interop conference, Shwed launched Check Point Software Technologies from a shared booth with no press release, no money and a product developed through 16-hour days and Coca-Cola diets. We applaud this year's trio, who join our long list of honorees previously selected for their outstanding achievements in creating new technology and using the channel to bring that technology to the marketplace.