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| Today's Thought-The Tim Hortons CEO |
| Friday, February 27, 2009 |
 Paul HouseExecutive Chairman
Paul House was born on a farm in Stoney Creek, Ontario in 1944. Paul began his work in the food and service business at an early age, marketing the family farm's fruits and vegetables at the Hamilton Farmer's Market. Throughout his formative years, Paul and his brother Bob maintained this connection by working and managing peach farms along the Niagara Peninsula.
In 1969, Paul graduated with a B.A. in Economics from McMaster University. Shortly thereafter, he managed a franchise for Shell Oil Company in Hamilton. Sparked by his passion for business and his roots in the food business, Paul joined Dairy Queen Canada Inc. as a District Manager in 1972. Although his original goal was to be a franchisee, Paul climbed the corporate ladder at Dairy Queen. He became Director of Purchasing and Vice-President of Canadian Operations.
In 1985, Paul joined The TDL Group Corp. as Vice-President of Marketing. At that time, there were just over 200 Tim Hortons locations. Two years later, Paul became Senior Vice-President of Operations and in 1990, he was appointed to Executive Vice-President of Operations. In January of 1993, Paul was named Chief Operating Officer (COO) of TDL, and then President and COO in 1995. In 2006, Paul became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President, and in February 2007, was appointed Chairman of the Board. In 2008 Paul accepted the position of Executive Chairman allowing him to focus on corporate strategy, franchisee relations and Board leadership.
Under Paul's leadership, TDL and the Tim Hortons chain have achieved outstanding growth and success. Tim Hortons has emerged as an industry leader by expanding its menu choices, transforming store designs and introducing par baking. Throughout this evolution, the chain has retained its community roots and commitment to friendly service, fresh product and great value.
Today, Paul sits on the Board of Directors for the Tim Horton Children's Foundation. He resides in the Hamilton area, enjoys regular hunting and fishing expeditions and time at his cottage on Lake Erie with his two children and grandchild.
WYD Team
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posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:01 AM  |
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| Today's Thought-The TATA CEO |
| Thursday, February 26, 2009 |
 Subramaniam Ramadorai (Padma Bhushan) is CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS).
During the past 30 years, S. Ramadorai, has played an integral role in the international development of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). His efforts have helped make TCS one of the world's largest global software and services companies with more than 100000 associates working in 53 countries, operating out of over 151 offices worldwide, and with revenues over US$ 5.7 billion (FY 2007-08).
Ramadorai was born in Nagpur, Maharashtra and did his school education from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Physics from Delhi University, India, a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, and a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of California, USA. In 1993, Ramadorai attended the Senior Executive Development Program at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Beginning his career with TCS as a junior engineer, he rose through the ranks and eventually was charged with setting up TCS' operations in the United States in 1979 in New York City, which has since grown to over 40 offices throughout the country. Since taking on the role of CEO, Ramadorai has focused his efforts on building relationships with large corporations and academic institutions, planning and directing technology development and acquisitions and overseeing the company's research and development activities.
He has played a pioneering role in establishing Offshore Development Centers (ODCs) in India to provide high-end solutions to major corporations including IBM, Microsoft, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Morgan Stanley, Tandem-Compaq, American Express,Merrill Lynch, Capital Bank, Target Corporation, Citibank, Qwest, Lucent Technologies, Ericsson and Nortel.
Under his leadership TCS set up Technology Excellence Centers in India that have acquired knowledge, expertise and equipment in specialized technology areas like IBM, Oracle Corporation, SAP, AS400, DEC, HP, Microsoft, Silicon Graphics, Sun and Tandem. Recently, he led TCS in forging new partnerships and alliances with the American International Group of Companies, Citibank, Microsoft, Oracle and Keylabs, and widening existing relationships with Capital Bank (Bank of Scotland Group), Prudential Insurance Company of America, Hewlett Packard and Unigraphics Solutions Inc.
Ramadorai has spearheaded TCS' quality initiatives, taking sixteen of its Development Centers to SEI's CMM Level 5, the highest and most prestigious performance assessment issued by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Over 22,000 TCS employees have been covered by this assessment. TCS also attained the distinction of being the World's first company to have all Centres assessed as operating at Level 5 of PCMM (People-CMM).
Ramadorai is the Chairman of TATA Technologies Limited, Chairman of CMC Ltd, and Vice Chairman of TATA Elxsi (India) Ltd. He is also the chairman of Computational Research Laboratories Ltd. He is also on the Board of Directors of Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Nicholas Piramal India Ltd, TATA Limited (India), TATA Infotech Limited (India), TATA Internet Services Limited, Nelito Systems Limited, and several other companies.
Continue reading here
WYD Team |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:27 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The Founder of Reliance Industries |
| Wednesday, February 25, 2009 |
 Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, one of the leading Indian businessmen, was born on December 28, 1932 in Chorwad, Gujarat. Popularly known as Dhirubhai Ambani, he heads The Reliance Industries, India's largest private enterprise.Dhirubhai started off as a small time worker with Arab merchants in the 1950s and moved to Mumbai in 1958 to start his own business in spices. After making modest profits, he moved into textiles and opened his mill near Ahmedabad. Dhirubhai founded Reliance Industries in 1958. After that it was a saga of expansions and successes.Reliance, acknowledged as one of the best-run companies in the world has various sectors like petrochemicals, textiles and is involved in the production of crude oil and gas, to polyester and polymer products. The companies refinery at Jamnagar accounts for over 25% of India's total refining capacity and their plant at Hazira is the biggest chemical complex in India. The company has further diversified into Telecom, Insurance and Internet Businesses, the Power Sector and so on. Now the Reliance group with over 85,000 employees provides almost 5% of the Central Government's total revenue.Dhirubhai has been one among the select Forbes billionaires and has also figured in the Sunday Times list of top 50 businessmen in Asia. His industrious nature and willingness to take on any risk has made him what he is. In 1986 after a heart attack he has handed over his empire to his two sons Anil and Mukesh. His sons are carrying on the successful tradition of their illustrious father.
Early life
'Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani' was born on 28 December 1932, at Chorwad, Junagadh in the state of Gujarat, India, into a Modh family of very moderate means. He was the second son of a school teacher. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden, Yemen. Initially, Dhirubhai worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co. Two years later A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden.He was married to Kokilaben and had two sons and two daughters. He also worked in Dubai for some time during his early years.
Life in Aden
Kokilaben and Dhirubhai Ambani, In the 1950s, the Yemini administration realized that their main unit of currency, the Rial, was disappearing fast. Upon launching an investigation, they realized that a lot of Rials were being routed to the Port City of Aden. It was found that a young man in his twenties was placing unlimited buy orders for Yemini Rials.During those days, the Yemini Rial was made of pure silver coins and was in much demand at the London Bullion Exchange. Young Dhirubhai bought the Rials, melted them into pure silver and sold it to the bullion traders in London. During the latter part of his life, while talking to reporters, it is believed that he said “The margins were small but it was money for jam. After three months, it was stopped. But I made a few lakhs. In short, I was a manipulator. A very good manipulator. But I don’t believe in not taking opportunities.
Reliance Commercial Corporation
Ten years later, Dhirubai returned to India and started the Reliance Commercial Corporation with a capital of Rs. 15,000.00. The primary business of Reliance Commercial Corporation was to import polyester yarn and export spices.The business was setup in partnership with Champaklal Damani, his second cousin, who used to be with him in Aden, Yemen. The first office of the Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up at the Narsinathan Street in Masjid Bunder. It was a 350 Sq. Ft. room with a telephone, one table and three chairs. Initially, they had two assistants to help them with their business.
WYD Team Save Water... |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:03 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The Amgen CEO |
| Tuesday, February 24, 2009 |
 Kevin W. Sharer, CEO of Amgen, a global leader in pharmaceuticals developed using biotechnology, got his leadership skills and personal drive from his training at the U.S. Naval Academy. He developed his ambitions through a series of corporate executive positions (none of them the top position) after he left the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander in 1978. Determined to rise to the top position in some company, Sharer saw potential in the position of president and COO at Amgen when he took the job in 1992. Sharer got the top job, CEO, in May 2000. His goal was to move Amgen from its leadership position in biotech pharmaceuticals to a top position among all pharmaceutical companies, putting him as CEO of Amgen on a par with CEOs of such major health-care leaders as Johnson & Johnson.
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP AMBITION
At the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Sharer majored in aeronautical engineering, receiving a bachelor's degree and a master's degree. His initial ambition was to be a navy pilot like his father, but his eyesight precluded that goal, and he went into the submarine service instead. He told Arlene Weintraub in an interview for an article in BusinessWeek Online (March 18, 2002) that "he decided he was meant to be a leader just about the time he started taking orders" in the navy.
Sharer served on two nuclear fast-attack submarines during the cold war. As chief engineer he oversaw the construction and trained the crew for the second sub, the Memphis. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover had to approve the ship before it was launched. When Rickover, known as the creator of the "nuclear navy," questioned the young officer, Sharer told Weintraub, "I had to tell him I was right" (BusinessWeek Online, March 18, 2002).
In 1978 Sharer left the navy as a lieutenant commander. He was impatient to move ahead, but he realized that it would take years of service to rise to the top job in submarine service. Moreover, a career in the navy required too much time away from family. Sharer decided to redirect his ambitions to be at the top in the corporate world. His first job was with AT&T, where he worked from 1978 to 1982. During that time he earned an MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1982. With a new MBA in hand, Sharer talked his way into a consultant position with McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm that serves top management in major companies and institutions on issues of strategy, organization, and operation. Sharer's navy experience and his tremendous ambition to lead caught the attention of Ron Bancroft, also a Naval Academy graduate and a partner in McKinsey's Washington, D.C., office. General Electric (GE) recruited Sharer for a position in corporate development in 1984.
Sharer made an impression on Jack Welch, GE's CEO, who offered him a chance to lead the GE jet engine division. Sharer refused the job because that position was not high profile enough. Sharer left GE for an executive vice president position in marketing at MCI Telecommunications Corporation in 1989. At MCI, Sharer became convinced that internal politics would keep him in a number three position and that he would never get to be the CEO. He left MCI in 1992 to join Amgen as president and COO because he could see the potential in the Amgen job to match his ambition to become the company's CEO. Amgen was the world's largest biotech company, but it was a midsize company when compared to the major pharmaceutical and health-care products companies.
WYD Team |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:01 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The Heart of ITC |
| Monday, February 23, 2009 |
 ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar, better known by his nickname Yogi, is a man who loves doing deals. It was no surprise, therefore, that he went out of his way to settle the 20-year-old tax dispute with the excise department of the central government earlier this week in pursuit of his stated intention to clean up the books of ITC and settle outstanding disputes and litigation.
Deveshwar inherited a slew of disputes from his predecessors when he assumed the mantle at ITC -- they ranged from unpaid tax notices through criminal cases filed by the government of Singapore and trade-related litigation in the US.
"Many would have described the inheritance as a crown of thorns but Deveshwar's commitment to the company has never wavered," say his compatriots in Kolkata.
Deveshwar has braved criticism over the years at successive annual general meetings, from shareholders who would have liked ITC to dip into its vast reserves and issue bonus shares or other forms of shareholder reward.
The chairman's position has been that the firm would be wise to conserve its resources till such time as the disputes could be resolved through a carrot and stick policy, of legal action and judicious pay-outs.
He has conveyed this message to agitated shareholders over the years through replies that were strong on both logic and charm, and disarmed them. To be fair, not all his deals have worked -- an offer to settle such a dispute in Singapore was not accepted by the administrators there.
So why did it work in India? It's because ITC is today seen as a true-blue Indian company (and Deveshwar can take credit for this too!) that has been investing in the rural economy and in crucial sectors of the economy much before such things became fashionable.
The company's investments in the creation of a unique information-technology-enabled rural information and trading network, called e-choupal, and India's first rural mall at Sehore, have transformed ITC from a multinational peddling cigarettes to a venture with firm roots and commitment in the Indian economy.
Its paper business has looked beyond the balance sheet through investments in social forestry programmes and environment-friendly technology. Its retailing and foods businesses have brought Indian products to the market without a hitch, and its hotels have Indian-ness at their heart.
As far as the tax dispute is concerned, some credit doubtlessly goes to the government for being so pragmatic as to gracefully accept the verdict of the apex court and withdrawing the ill-advised Ordinance that sought to recover unjust dues through executive action.
But just as much credit should go to Deveshwar's skill in cooling down what could have been a nasty run-in with the taxman.
"You can succeed in doing a deal only if you are convinced about what you are seeking to achieve and also if are sure you can carry others with you -- Deveshwar has achieved both," says a fellow professional manager and CEO.
The performance of ITC has silenced his critics on the board, including one-third shareholder BAT plc, which was initially very hostile to his plans to make ITC look beyond tobacco.
While the boardroom presence of Indian financial institutions, also with one-third shareholding in the company, might have helped the settlement with the government, Deveshwar was clearly balancing two sets of critics while doing this deal.
One the one hand, BAT could well have disputed the wisdom of paying anything in view of the favourable Supreme Court judgment, while on the other, the FIs could well have applied pressure for payment of the entire sum in the light of the Ordinance.Deveshwar can justly claim the entire credit for reconciling these viewpoints through his conviction, and, of course, his trademark combination of hard logic and charm.
WYD Team |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 8:59 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The Wrestling CEO |
| Friday, February 20, 2009 |
Linda E. McMahon is Chief Executive Officer of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. in Stamford, Conn. She also serves on the company’s Board of Directors. Her husband, Vincent K. McMahon, is Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors.
Starting as a regional company in 1982, the McMahons used their business savvy to turn WWE into a global leader in media and entertainment with annual revenues of nearly $500 million. Mrs. McMahon has been widely recognized as one of the entertainment industry’s top female executives, both for her business acumen and her support of a variety of community-based initiatives.
The McMahons began their foray into the live event promotion business in 1979 when they formed Titan Sports. That same year they purchased a little known arena called the Cape Cod Coliseum and began promoting a variety of events from professional hockey to rock concerts to professional wrestling.
In 1980, the McMahons incorporated Titan Sports. In 1982, Titan Sports purchased Capitol Wrestling Corporation, the company founded by Vince’s father. Wrestling was still regarded as a regional enterprise, but with the purchase of Capitol, they had the opportunity to give the company that would become World Wrestling Entertainment much greater geographic coverage and to give the product better positioning as entertainment, not sport.
That broader appeal led to syndication and later to national and international television contracts, concurrent with trademarking and branding World Wrestling Entertainment. Mrs. McMahon negotiated and implemented the first licensing deal in the wrestling industry with a toy company called LJN, which produced the WWE line of Superstar action figures. She also managed the development of WWE publications, and, at the start, wrote most of the articles. This foresight was a harbinger of multi-million dollar business centers for the company.
Today, from global headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Mrs. McMahon oversees and guides the strategic direction of this integrated media company whose content and products are distributed on a global basis via broadcast, syndication and cable television, publications, mobile phones, and the Internet. Ancillary businesses include licensing, merchandising, home video, e-commerce, catalog sales and WWE Studios, which creates a diversified mix of filmed entertainment, including theatrical films, direct-to-DVD movies, and scripted television movies, series and reality programming. In 2007, Mrs. McMahon was named one of Multichannel News’ “Wonder Woman,” recognizing her accomplishments with WWE and as a leader in the U.S. cable television industry.
Under Mrs. McMahon’s leadership, the company continues to grow. In addition to its headquarters in Stamford, WWE has offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, London, Tokyo, Sydney and Shanghai. In October 1999, the company undertook a successful initial public offering. Today, the company trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WWE.
In addition to her work in the boardroom, Mrs. McMahon has been instrumental in nurturing WWE’s community and charitable programs. She spearheaded the creation of WWE’s Get R.E.A.L. educational and literacy programs, including the company’s nationwide WrestleMania Reading Challenge in partnership with the Young Adult Services Library Association, the youth division of the American Library Association. She has also led the development of WWE’s Smackdown Your Vote! initiative to encourage more young adults to vote with exceptional results, and received recognition from the major political parties for the program’s success. Partners in that endeavor include the League of Women Voters, the National Association of Secretaries of State, Harvard Institute of Politics, the University of Virginia Center for Politics Youth Leadership Initiative, and Sacred Heart University.
In recognition of WWE’s work to support children over the past 20 years, Mrs. McMahon was appointed in 2005 to The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America National Advisory Council. The Make-A-Wish Foundation, in 2004, awarded WWE its highest honor, the Chris Grecius Award, for WWE’s extensive support of its organization. She is a major supporter of such organizations as the Starlight Foundation Research Foundation and the USO.
The WWE was the recipient of the USO of Metropolitan Washington’s first ever “Legacy of Hope” award for WWE’s extensive support of our troops and the USO’s Operation Care Package program. In 2007, WWE received the Secretary of Defense Exceptional Public Service Award for its support of deployed service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the company received the GI Film Festival’s Corporate Patriot Award.
She has served as the Honorary Corporate Chair of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, running one of the organization’s most successful fundraising efforts. Mrs. McMahon also was presented the Arthur M. Sackler Award from the Connecticut Grand Opera and Orchestra for WWE’s support of its arts education program. She has served on the Governor’s Council for the World Special Olympics.
Mrs. McMahon was elected in October 2004 to serve on the Board of Trustees of Sacred Heart University of Fairfield, Conn. She now serves on the board’s Executive Committee and chairs its Institutional Advancement Committee.
Born October 4, 1948, and raised in New Bern, N.C., Mrs. McMahon was a high school honor society student who was also fond of basketball and tennis. She and Vince were married in 1966. After graduating from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., with a Bachelor of Science in French and certified to teach, Linda and Vince moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a paralegal at the law firm of Covington & Burling.
The McMahons have resided in Greenwich, Conn., for more than 20 years. They have two adult children who make up the fourth generation of McMahons involved in the business – Shane, Executive Vice President, Global Media, and Stephanie, Executive Vice President, Creative Writing, Talent Relations and Live Events. Also involved in the business is Stephanie’s husband, Paul Levesque, who portrays the WWE’s charismatic Triple H.
WYD Team
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| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 8:53 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The Other MS man |
| Thursday, February 19, 2009 |
 At Lakeside School, Paul Allen (14 years old) and friend Bill Gates (12 years old) became early computer enthusiasts. Allen went on to attend Washington State University, though he dropped out after two years to pursue his and Gates's dream of writing software commercially for the new "personal computers".
Allen and Gates and a small group of other Lakeside students begin programming in BASIC, using a teletype terminal. Helps teach computer course to junior high students at Lakeside. Graduates from Lakeside; enrolls at Washington State University. Allen and Gates buy an Intel 8008 chip for $360 and build a computer to measure traffic.They launch their first company, Traf-O-Data. Hired as a programmer by Honeywell in Boston. Allen and Gates write the first microcomputer BASIC for the Altair, a computer kit based on Intel's new 8080 chip. They move to Albuquerque, N.M., where Altair's producer MITS makes Allen its associate director of software. Allen divides his time between MITS and a new company he and Gates have started to develop and market microcomputer languages: Micro Soft.
Apple commissions Microsoft to supply a version of its BASIC for the hot-selling Apple II. Radio Shack buys a Microsoft BASIC for its TRS-80. Microsoft moves from Albuquerque to Bellevue, Wash. Microsoft agrees to develop and license DOS and BASIC to IBM for its new personal computer. Gates and Allen discuss graphical user interfaces, planting the seeds that will become Windows.
Allen and Gates found Microsoft (initially "Micro Soft") in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and begin selling a BASIC interpreter. Allen spearheads a deal for Microsoft to buy an operating system called QDOS for $50,000. Microsoft wins a contract to supply it to for use as the operating system of IBM's new PC. This becomes the foundation for Microsoft's remarkable growth.
Allen was forced to resign from Microsoft in 1983 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease which was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy.
In 1984 he founded Asymetrix, a software development company based in Belleuve, Washington, to make application development tools that nonprogrammers can use. Asymetrix later went on to become Click2learn.com and yet later merged with Docent to become Sum Total System (2004). In the 1990's the company began to specialize in software for developing and delivering computer-based learning.
1992 Allen started Starwave, a producer of online content sites. Starwave did such great work for ESPN SportsZone and ABCNews.com that Disney (NYSE: DIS) bought it for a total of $350 million last year.
1998 In April Allen buys Marcus Cable, the nation's 10th largest cable company, for $2.8 billion--his biggest investment to date. Also this year Allen grabbed a stake of the Internet video-sales market with his purchase of Hollywood Entertainment. And he took another software group public. This time it's Asymetrix Learning Systems, maker of products for online classes.
On September 28, 2000 - Microsoft Corp. announced that Paul Allen is assuming a new role as senior strategy adviser to top Microsoft executives. The company also announced that Allen and Richard Hackborn have decided not to seek re-election to Microsoft's board of directors at the company's November shareholder meeting.
In December 2003 he announced that he was the sponsor behind the SpaceShipOne private rocket plane venture from Scaled Composites, as part of the ANSARI X PRIZE competition. In June 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first successful commercial spacecraft when it passed the 100 kilometer threshold of space.
Go Green !!! Save Planet Earth |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:20 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The BIG Entertainer |
| Wednesday, February 18, 2009 |
Sumner Murray Redstone (born Sumner Murray Rothstein; May 27, 1923) is majority owner and Chairman of the Board of the National Amusements theater chain. Through National Amusements, Sumner Redstone and his family are majority owners of CBS Corporation, Viacom, and MTV Networks, BET, and movie production and distribution Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks movie studios, and are equal partners in MovieTickets.com.
Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Belle (née Ostrovsky) and Michael Redstone.His family's name was changed from Rothstein to Redstone, when Sumner was 17. His father was the owner of the Northeast Theater Corporation in Dedham, Massachusetts--the forerunner of National Amusements.He also owned the Boston branch of the Latin Quarter Nightclub.
Redstone attended the prestigious Boston Latin School, where he graduated first in his class. He then attended Harvard College, where he completed his B.A. in three years. Later, Redstone served in World War II, serving with the team that decoded Japanese messages for the United States Army.[4] Upon completion of his Army service, he worked in Washington, D.C. and attended Georgetown University Law School. He transferred into Harvard Law School and received his LL.B., later amended to a Juris Doctor, from that institution.
After completing law school, Redstone worked for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, and then went into private practice. After a few years in practice, he joined his father's theater chain.
As National Amusements grew, Redstone believed that content would become more important than distribution mechanisms. There would always exist channels of distribution (albeit in varied forms), but content was always going to be necessary (his famous quote is "content is king!"[citation needed]). He then made investments in Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Orion Pictures, and Paramount Pictures (the latter of the four of which Redstone's Viacom would buy in the 1990s-see below), all of which turned over huge profits when he chose to sell the stock in the early 1980s.
In 1979, he almost died in the Boston Copley Hotel fire. He crawled out of a window onto a ledge. He was not expected to survive and underwent 30 hours of intense surgery.
Looking for a new business venture, he set his sights on Viacom International, a company which he had already been buying stock in as an investment and was a spin-off of CBS in 1971 after the FCC ruled that television networks could not syndicate programs they produced. Viacom syndicated most of CBS's programs, but also made a lot of money from syndicating other programs, including most of Carsey-Werner Productions' shows (The Cosby Show, Roseanne, and A Different World), as well as syndicating shows for other companies (Columbia Pictures Television's All in the Family was one notable example), and cable channels (Nickelodeon's Double Dare and Finders Keepers (co-syndicated with 20th Television) were two examples).
Viacom also owned MTV Networks (formerly known as Warner-AMEX Satellite Entertainment), which owned MTV and Nickelodeon. In addition, other included properties included Showtime Networks (a similar pay-television network to HBO and Cinemax) and The Movie Channel. Viacom acquired MTV Networks in 1985 for $550 million from Steve Ross' Warner Communications. (WCI bought American Express' share and then sold the entire entity to Viacom, as they felt that they could not make a lot of money from the venture and the bias of a studio owning cable channels would be a conflict of interest. The studio's stance changed in 1995, when as Time Warner it bought Turner Broadcasting.
WYD Team
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| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:16 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The Airline CEO |
| Tuesday, February 17, 2009 |
Jonathan G. Ornstein Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mesa Air Group, Inc.
Jonathan began his aviation career in 1987 with Air LA, a small commuter airline based in Los Angeles, California, where his responsibilities ranged from finance and planning to baggage handling and aircraft cleaning. Jonathan's first contact with Mesa occurred in the summer of 1988 during the negotiation of Air LA's sublease of a Mesa aircraft and in 1989, Jonathan accepted a job offer from Mesa with the prestigious title of "Assistant to the President". At Mesa Jonathan was eventually responsible for all scheduling, pricing, fleet planning and acquisitions.
Over the next six years, working with Mesa's CEO Larry Risley, Jonathan directed Mesa's acquisition of Aspen Airways (United Express), Air Midwest (US Air Express), WestAir (United Express) and Crown Airways. During this time, Mesa's annual revenues grew from $11 million to over $500 million, pretax income rose from $240,000 to $45 million and the number of employees increased from 165 to 3,000. In recognition of its success, the Company was named 1992 Regional Airline of the Year by Air Transport World magazine.
At the time of Mesa's purchase, WestAir was both the largest, as well as the most unprofitable, independent regional airline in the US. Following Mesa's purchase, Jonathan was appointed President of WestAir. After a significant restructuring, WestAir broke its string of ten consecutive quarterly losses and posted a pretax profit exceeding $15 million, up from a pretax loss of $12 million twelve months earlier.
Returning to Mesa headquarters in 1993, Jonathan worked closely with Texas Pacific Group and Continental in the bankruptcy reorganization of America West. In recognition of Mesa's help in the America West restructuring, as well as Mesa's operational capabilities, the Company was chosen to provide regional operations for America West. In addition, Mesa invested $20 million in America West which it later sold for a $47 million profit.
As a result of the work Jonathan performed in the America West restructuring, Continental's Chairman and General Partner of the Texas Pacific Group David Bonderman offered Jonathan the opportunity to become President and CEO of Continental Express. Like WestAir, Continental Express had been significantly unprofitable for a number of years and with the lessons learned from his experience at Mesa, Jonathan and his new management team quickly implemented a major restructuring. Jonathan also concurrently served as Senior Vice President Airport Operations for Continental Airlines overseeing the successful restructuring of Continental's operations. In recognition of his accomplishments at Continental, Jonathan was selected as Regional Airline Executive of the Year for 1995, an award presented by Commuter/Regional Airline News - the industry's publication of record - and Rolls-Royce.
After Continental chose not to spin off the now-successful Continental Express, Ornstein accepted an offer from Richard Branson to develop a low-cost, low-fare jet carrier in Europe. In 1996, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Express, based in Brussels, Belgium. During his tenure at Virgin Express, Jonathan took the company from a fledgling startup to a publicly traded company operating a fleet of over 25 737s throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. By 1998 the airline's passenger traffic increased tenfold and generated annual revenues in excess of $300 million and operating profits of $16 million.
Continue reading here...
WYD Team |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 8:44 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The QCI CEO |
| Monday, February 16, 2009 |
 Chief executive officer and chairman of the board, Qwest Communications International
Richard C. Notebaert (pronounced note-a-bärt), who was born in Canada but raised in Columbus, Ohio, was a happy warrior, eager to take on new challenges and to mingle with workers, shareholders, and customers to show them his vision of a bright future even during the most miserable of times.
A low-key personality, he had the common touch and would converse as easily with blue-collar workers as he did with corporate executives. He was responsible for making Ameritech one of the most successful "Baby Bells" (companies spun off from AT&T in an antitrust settlement), he was credited with saving Tellabs from dissolution, and he staved off bankruptcy for Qwest when the situation appeared hopeless.Although he was visionary in terms of what he foresaw his companies providing in services, his business techniques were classic: anticipate developments in the marketplace, cut costs, and organize a company around its customers' needs.
THE COMPANY MAN
Notebaert's career began while he was in college, when he took a job washing trucks. While in college he married Peggy, who was one of the anchors of his life throughout his sometimes tumultuous career. He worked in both marketing and services during the first decade of his career at Ameritech; he began his rapid rise up the corporate ladder when he received his MBA in 1983.
It was an opportune time to have earned an MBA because AT&T, which had long held a monopoly on telephone communications in the United States, was being broken up into a long-distance carrier and five new local phone companies. One of the new local companies was Ameritech Corporation, which received the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin as its territory.
Notebaert quickly became the vice president of marketing and operations for Ameritech Communications, one of the divisions of Ameritech Corporation.When Notebaert became president of Ameritech Mobile Communications in 1986, the cellular communications industry was just beginning to catch on; through aggressive marketing, he built the customer base of Ameritech's cellular telephone division to 950,000.
Near the end of Notebaert's tenure as president of Indiana Bell Telephone Company, in February 1992, William Weiss, Ameritech's chief executive officer and chairman of the board, held a special meeting of the company's management. He had asked each attendee to write about what Ameritech should be doing in the future and then had each read aloud his views during the meeting. Notebaert's presentation caught Weiss's attention with its expansive view of Ameritech's possibilities, advocating that the company develop video conferencing; blend the Internet, telephones, and televisions into one vast interactive service; and offer "quality of life" services, such as safety and security.
At age 45 Notebaert was considered young by the standards of Ameritech executives.Notebaert proved to be an excellent motivator of employees, communicating with and inspiring even the lowest ranks through open communications and easy accessibility. In January 1993 Weiss and the board of directors of Ameritech named Notebaert vice chairman of the board, and in June 1993 they named him president and chief operating officer of Ameritech, leaping him past many more senior executives. During this period, Notebaert helped expand Ameritech's international operations, including Telecom Corporation in New Zealand and Belgacom in Belgium. Ameritech played a crucial role in the creation of Belgacom, which was the first of Belgium's government monopolies to be privatized.
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| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 8:47 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The at&t CEO |
| Saturday, February 14, 2009 |
 Randall L. Stephenson is chairman of the board, chief executive officer and president of AT&T Inc. He was appointed to the position in June 2007.
Before being named chairman, CEO and president, Mr. Stephenson served as chief operating officer and was responsible for all wireless and wireline operations. He was named chief operating officer for SBC Communications Inc. in April 2004 and continued as COO after the acquisitions of AT&T Corp. in November 2005 and BellSouth in December 2006.
During his tenure as COO, the company outperformed its peers in nearly every category. Today, AT&T leads the industry in wireless, business, broadband, voice and directory and is gaining momentum in the TV market.
Born in Oklahoma City, Mr. Stephenson began his career with Southwestern Bell Telephone in 1982 in the information technology organization in Oklahoma. He then progressed through a series of leadership positions in finance, including an international assignment in Mexico City, and in 1996 was named controller for SBC Communications. Additionally, Mr. Stephenson has served as senior vice president-Consumer Marketing.
Before becoming COO, Mr. Stephenson was senior executive vice president and chief financial officer for SBC. During this time, the company reduced its net debt from $30 billion to almost zero by early 2004 and was in position to make strategic acquisitions of AT&T Wireless, AT&T Corp. and BellSouth.
In 2005, Mr. Stephenson was appointed to the new AT&T's board of directors.
Additionally, he served on the Cingular Wireless board of directors from 2001 to 2006 and was chairman in 2003 - 2004.
He is also a member of the board of directors of Emerson.
In the community, Mr. Stephenson serves on the San Antonio United Way Executive Committee.
Mr. Stephenson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and a Master of Accountancy degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Corporate History
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. That was the foundation of the company that would become AT&T — a brand that has become synonymous with the best, most reliable telephone service in the world.
In 1984, through an agreement between the former AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice, AT&T agreed to divest itself of its local telephone operations but retain its long distance, R&D and manufacturing arms. From this arrangement, SBC Communications Inc. (formerly known as Southwestern Bell Corp.) was born.
Twelve years later, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 triggered dramatic changes in the competitive landscape. SBC Communications Inc. established itself as a global communications provider by acquiring Pacific Telesis Group (1997), Southern New England Telecommunications (1998) and Ameritech Corp. (1999). In 2005, SBC Communications Inc. acquired AT&T Corp., creating the new AT&T.
With the merger of AT&T and BellSouth in 2006, and the consolidated ownership of Cingular Wireless and YELLOWPAGES.COM, AT&T is positioned to lead our industry in one of its most significant transformations since the invention of the telephone more than 130 years ago.
WYD Team |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 12:27 PM |
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| Today's Thought-The Big Birla |
| Friday, February 13, 2009 |
 In the decade since he found himself in his father's large shoes, Kumar Mangalam Birla has forged a career that could make him the biggest Birla of them all.
When his father, Aditya Vikram Birla, died of prostrate cancer 10 years back, very few people thought this shy and obsessively low-profile young son would be able to take over from his father.
Today, when Kumar Mangalam Birla, 38, talks about his dream of the Aditya Birla Group entering the Fortune 500 league, the world sits up and listens. Consider the figures: the turnover of the group, which has 16 companies and joint ventures in India and 22 separate international companies, mostly in South-east Asia, was worth Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) in 1995.
It has more than doubled to Rs 33,000 crore (Rs 330 billion) today, with a market capitalisation of Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion). The journey has been long and in the process, Birla has razed many ancient financial practices and power centres within the group.
His doting grandparents Basant Kumar and Sarla Devi were always convinced that he was destined to succeed. Sarla Devi has an interesting story to tell: The Birlas organised a religious conclave attended by 180 religious leaders in Kolkata when the young Birla was only three and a half years old.
Present at the conclave was a Muslim religious leader from Sri Lanka who wrote a letter to BK making two forecasts - that his grandson would be seriously ill at the age of seven, but would be Birla number one eventually.
Kumar Manglam Birla did suffer from meningitis when he was seven, so Sarla Devi says she saw no reason why the second forecast wouldn't be correct as well.
And well it may, considering the scorching pace Birla has set for his group, shaping and reshaping his companies relentlessly. The result?
The group is today the world number one in viscose staple fibre; the world's largest single-location palm oil producer; Asia's largest integrated aluminium producer; a globally competitive, fast-growing copper producer; the world's third-largest producer of insulators; globally the fourth-largest producer of carbon black; the world's eighth-largest producer of cement and the largest in a single geography; India's premier branded garments player; among India's most energy efficient private sector fertiliser plants; India's second-largest producer of viscose filament yarn; the number two private sector insurance company and the fourth-largest asset management company in India.
"Our focus is to attain the leadership position in every business we are into. That is to be done through capacity expansion and cost reduction. Every business has been categorised according to the geographical leadership roles they can play and the focus is very much on profitability and growth rather than size or footprint," says D D Rathi, wholetime director and CFO of Grasim Industries.
On capacity expansion, the group is going to spend Rs 26,000 crore (Rs 260 billion) on Grasim in the next two years. Grasim has a 23 per cent share of the viscose stable fibre market and is the most profitable such company in the world.
"The aim is to reinforce the company's edge in the cellulosic man-made fibre sector through fully integrated operations, virtually from the forest-to-fabric," he says. In cement, Grasim, along with its subsidiary UltraTech, is the world's eighth-largest player.
Hindalco's alumina capacity is being raised from 350,000 tonnes per annum to 650,000 tpa and its high-value special alumina is being ramped up from 91,000 tpa to 167,000 tpa. The company is augmenting the power generation capacity from 67.5MW to 317.5 MW.
WYD Team
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| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 8:51 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The Patni CEO |
| Thursday, February 12, 2009 |
.jpg) He's in the eye of a leadership storm today. However, Narendra Patni, chairman and CEO of Patni Computer Systems , was among the first leaders to have started the offshoring trend in India.
A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he had gone to the US in 1964 on a MIT fellowship. The husband-wife duo -- Narendra Patni and Poonam Patni -- took the first steps towards the offshoring business way back in 1972. Initially they started operations from their third floor apartment in the US, and later set up back-office operations in Pune (started by Poonam) with 20 people. The company currently has over 14,000 employees.
When he founded the company in 1978, he had the likes of Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and S Gopalakrishnan on his rolls. While they went on to set up Infosys which today is the second largest Indian IT services provider, Patni was not as lucky.
Moreover, while the Indian IT industry went in for a complete change in 1999-2000 during the dotcom bust, and companies like Infosys made hay, Narendra Patni and his brothers were grappling with the hardware and software business. In 2001, the brothers decided to split the business into two -- hardware (now PCS Technology Ltd ) and the software business.
Then Narendra Patni had only one option -- to catch up with the others. Those who were working with him during the changing phase of 2002-03, and when the company eventually got listed in 2004, focused on being the preferred service provider in certain chosen verticals. Despite the slow momentum, the company has been able to withstand the competition from both MNCs as well as Indian IT companies.
"He has always been a shy person. He has always believed in keeping quiet and working hard, something that comes with his MIT background," said a person who has worked very closely with him. This was also clear when, despite the disagreement between the brothers on the stake sale being spoken and written about regularly in the media, Narendra Patni chose to remain silent most of the time.
Even when he did speak, he did not attach much importance to the proposed stake sale, saying that both the brothers -- Ashok and Gajendra Patni -- had sold close to 6 million shares since the company went public in 2004. "I have built the company from scratch, and would like the shares to find a good home when they are on offer," is what he was clear about. Simultaneously, he instructed his sales team to get in touch with him in case clients asked them any uncomfortable questions.
Now with the Patni Computer Systems' stake sale being called off, it brings to an end the uncertainty that has surrounded the issue for the last six months. Back in saddle for at least a year (his tenure as CEO expires at end of December, 2008), Narendra Patni chooses to be focused on the work at hand. "He is a very honest and thoughtful person, something which comes out very clearly in the way he works. Transparency is very important to him," says another employee of the company. These qualities may stand him in good stead.
WYD Team
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| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:47 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The HSBC CEO |
| Tuesday, February 10, 2009 |
Michael Geoghegan, chief executive of HSBC since 2006, was just the person the bank group needed to put at the helm of attempts to tackle its growing bad-debt problem in America.
The Windsor-born executive, who has been with Europe's biggest bank since 1973, had spent 12 years working in North America and South America and for a period chaired HSBC Bank USA.
Before becoming group chief, he had headed HSBC's high street banking operations in the UK and was known to be cool-headed. In 2005 he had shown his mettle when grilled by MPs over bank charges for businesses.
Mr Geoghegan, 54, who is married with two sons, took executive responsibility for wrestling with HSBC's sub-prime woes last year, when its big drive to lend to customers with patchy credit histories forced it to increase its bad-debt provisions.
With Douglas Flint, HSBC's steely Scottish finance director, Mr Geoghegan took charge of the American unit while the bank sought successors to Bobby Mehta and Sandy Derickson, the previous US bank bosses, who had been shown the door.
Although HSBC had to write down $17 billion against exposure to sub-prime mortgage securities, it was praised for addressing its problems swiftly, even by those who had criticised it for splashing out $14.5 billion on Household, the embattled US sub-prime lender.
Mr Geoghegan, who was 20 when he joined the bank, was groomed for a senior job, but was no shoo-in when the elevation of Stephen Green to HSBC chairman left a vacancy for chief executive. The bank has always rewarded its long-standing staffers, but was under pressure to look externally for a new boss.
Mr Geoghegan's CV is peppered with stints working for the bank in locations from Europe to Asia and the Middle East. Time in Brazil, where he was the bank's president and where his contribution to business was recognised by appointment as a CBE, also served him in good stead.
WYD Team  |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:21 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The DuPont CEO |
| Monday, February 9, 2009 |
 Ellen J. Kullman, 52, is chief executive officer of DuPont. Ellen is the 19th executive to lead the company in more than 205 years of DuPont History. She became president on Oct. 1, 2008, and CEO on Jan.1, 2009.
Prior to her appointment as DuPont president and CEO she served as executive vice president and a member of the company's office of the chief executive. She was responsible for DuPont Coatings & Color Technologies; DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies; DuPont Performance Materials; DuPont Safety & Protection; Marketing & Sales; Pharmaceuticals; Risk Management; and Safety & Sustainability.
In March 2008, Ellen was tapped to lead the dynamic planning process for the company's growth in emerging international markets. A native of Wilmington, Del., Ellen began her career at DuPont in 1988 as marketing manager in the Medical Imaging business. Following two years as business director for the X-ray Film business, she moved to Printing & Publishing as global business director, Electronic Imaging. In 1994, she joined White Pigment & Mineral Products as global business director and was named vice president and general manager in 1995. She assumed leadership of two high-growth businesses, DuPont Safety Resources in 1998 and Bio-Based Materials in 1999.
Ellen was named group vice president and general manager in 2000 with the addition of Corporate New Business Development and Intellectual Assets Licensing. In 2001 she assumed responsibility for DuPont Flooring Systems and DuPont Surfaces. She was named group vice president - DuPont Safety & Protection in February 2002. In June 2006 she was named executive vice president until her appointment as DuPont President and CEO.
Ellen is on the Board of Trustees at Tufts University, serves on the board of overseers at Tufts University School of Engineering. She is also on the Board of Trustees, National Safety Council. Prior to joining DuPont, Ellen worked for General Electric in various business development and marketing positions. She holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Tufts University and a masters degree in management from Northwestern University.
WYD Team |
| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 5:37 PM |
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| Today's Thought-The P&G CEO |
| Friday, February 6, 2009 |
 A.G. Lafley has been credited with turning around Procter & Gamble since taking over the consumer-goods giant four years ago. P&G recently reported the strongest earnings in its long history, and its stock price has doubled since 2000.
Key ingredients in the company's resurgence include innovation, micromarketing, and an emphasis on nurturing talent. Notes Lafley, "Our assets at P&G are our people and our brands."
A.G. Lafley is proud of the fiscal year that Procter & Gamble recently completed. It's his fourth year on the job as CEO, and P&G's sales topped $50 billion—the best results in the history of the company, which was founded in 1837. "I'm thrilled because the year reflects the great work of P&Gers around the world," he says. "It shows that our strategies are working, that we're leveraging our core strengths, and that our leadership is focused." According to Lafley, this triangle of success at P&G—strategy, core capability, and leadership—is at the heart of the company's ability to "deliver consistently strong results."
Lafley has been credited with turning P&G around since taking the helm of the consumer-products giant in 2000. In addition to superlative earnings, P&G has seen its stock price double. The ingredients for Lafley's success include a laser-like focus on innovation and on building the company's bevy of billion-dollar brands like Crest, Pampers, and Tide. He has also given considerable emphasis to nurturing talent, instituting leadership programs aimed at everyone from P&G's top 100 managers worldwide to the company's new hires. Lafley notes, in what could be a company mantra, that "our assets at P&G are our people and our brands."
When Lafley was named CEO, the company was in a slump because of low earnings and low morale. It had lost focus on the basics. Lafley's inspirational leadership style, which emphasizes listening, coaching, and results, and his attention to fundamentals—treating the consumer as boss and focusing on P&G's big brands, top markets, and key customers—are being hailed for their "revolutionary" impact. As one analyst told Fortune magazine last spring: "In the eighteen years that I've followed Procter, I have never seen the company this good."
Crest and Pampers, for example, have regained market share after losing their number one positions in the United States several years ago to Colgate-Palmolive and Kimberly-Clark, respectively. Crest won back the top spot recently by introducing teeth-whitening products and by acquiring the battery-powered SpinBrush, now the nation's best-selling toothbrush. Retailing for around five dollars, SpinBrush accounted for $160 million in sales last year and is the subject of an HBS case study.
"SpinBrush is a wonderful example of the kind of innovation I've been pushing hard," says Lafley. "While P&G is very good at developing, qualifying, and commercializing innovation, we're not necessarily any better than others at creating it. So when we learned about a toothbrush that an entrepreneur had made from a spinning toy he had developed, we realized that this was a simple, elegant, low-cost, and high-value innovation that was conceptually and strategically right for us." An initiative launched by Lafley calls upon P&G to find half of its new products outside its walls, up from 20 percent four years ago and about 35 percent today.
Lafley has also pushed for aggressive target marketing of P&G's mature brands such as Tide, which was developed in 1946 as the country's first synthetic laundry detergent. Today, Tide is available in dozens of differentiated product offerings around the world, including Tide with Bleach, Clean Rinse Liquid, and now Tide with a touch of Downy.
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| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:12 AM |
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| Today's Thought-The Mozilla CEO |
| Thursday, February 5, 2009 |
 Winifred Mitchell Baker, better known simply as Mitchell Baker is the Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation and Chairperson and former Chief Executive Officer of the Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source Mozilla Internet applications, including the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client.
Trained as a lawyer, Baker coordinates business and policy issues and sits on both the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors and the Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors. In 2005, Time magazine included her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world and she has been affectionately given the title of "Chief Lizard Wrangler" at the Mozilla Corporation.
Baker received an AB in Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979, achieving a Certificate of Distinction. She received her JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law in 1987 and was admitted to the State Bar of California in the same year. From January 1990 until October 1993, she worked as a Corporate and Intellectual Property Associate at Fenwick & West LLP, a law practice that specialises in providing legal services to high technology companies. She then worked for Sun Microsystems as an Associate General Counsel from November 1993 until October 1994.
In November 1994, Baker was hired as one of the first employees of the legal department of Netscape Communications Corporation. Reporting directly to CEO Jim Barksdale, she jointly set up the initial department. She was responsible for intellectual property protection and legal issues relating to product development, reporting to the General Counsel. She also created and managed the Technology Group of the Legal Department. She was involved with the Mozilla project from the outset, writing both the Netscape Public License and the Mozilla Public License. In February 1999, Baker became the Chief Lizard Wrangler (general manager) of mozilla.org, the division of Netscape that coordinated the Mozilla open source project. In 2001, she was fired during a round of layoffs at America Online, by then the parent of Netscape. Despite this, she continued to serve as the Chief Lizard Wrangler of mozilla.org on a volunteer basis.
In November 2002, Baker was employed by the Open Source Applications Foundation, helping to guide the group's community relations and taking a seat on OSAF's Board of Directors. From the outset, she also had part of her time assigned to working on mozilla.org issues. However, the division of her hours gradually became more and more weighted towards her Mozilla work at the expense of her OSAF duties, leading to her decision to return to Mozilla full time in January 2005. She retained her seat on OSAF's board.
Baker was instrumental in the creation of the Mozilla Foundation, an independent non-profit that was launched on July 15, 2003 as America Online shut down the Netscape browser division and drastically scaled back its involvement with the Mozilla project. Baker became the President of the Mozilla Foundation and was appointed to the five-person Board of Directors.
When the Mozilla Corporation was launched as a taxable subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation on August 3, 2005, Baker was named the CEO of the new entity. In addition, she joined the Mozilla Corporation's Board of Directors, though she also kept her seat on the Mozilla Foundation's board, as well as her role as Chairperson.
On January 8, 2008, Mozilla announced that Baker, while retaining her role as Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation, would no longer serve as CEO of the Corporation, and that MoCo's Chief Operating Officer John Lilly would take over this role. The reasons cited for this change was Mozilla's rapid growth, which made it difficult for executives to continue to wear many hats. In the future, Baker will focus on the vision and message of the Mozilla project, while leaving the nuts and bolts of running a corporation with the CEO. Lilly, however, is expected to take a more public role in the future, much as Baker has.
WYD Team
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| posted by Win Your Dreams @ 8:58 AM |
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