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Scott McNealy (born November 13, 1954 in Columbus, Indiana) is the well-known Chairman of Sun Microsystems, the computer technology company he co-founded in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim. In 1984, McNealy took over the CEO role from co-founder Vinod Khosla, who would ultimately leave the company in 1985. On 24 April 2006, McNealy stepped down as CEO after serving in that position for 22 years, and turned the job over to Jonathan Schwartz. Sun Microsystems, along with companies such as Silicon Graphics, 3COM, and Oracle Corporation, was part of a wave of successful startup companies in California's Silicon Valley during the early and mid-1980s. He is a self-described libertarian. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/14/BU141353.DTL&type=business
Unlike most people involved in high technology industries, Scott McNealy did not come from the world of amateur programmers, hackers, and computer scientists. Instead, his background is from the business end, having graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. At Stanford, McNealy met Khosla, Joy, and Bechtolsheim and helped provide the necessary organizational and business leadership for the fledgling Sun Microsystems ("Sun" originally stood for Stanford University Network). McNealy is one of the few CEOs of a major corporation to have had a tenure of over twenty years.
McNealy enjoys playing ice hockey, a fact that is frequently brought up during interviews and press mentions.
Track record
- Chairman of the Board of Directors since April 2006
- Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer from April 2004 to April 2006
- Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer from July 2002 to April 2004
- Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer from April 1999 to June 2002
- Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer from December 1984 to April 1999
- President and Chief Operating Officer from February 1984 to December 1984
- Vice President of Operations from February 1982 to February 1984.
Sun's Motto: The Network is the Computer
McNealy was an early advocate of the networked environment. At times, he has been known to be skeptical of products that don't integrate well with networked environments.
A recent example of McNealy's criticism was the Apple iPod. According to The Register, a United Kingdom-based technology magazine, McNealy said, "There's a pendulum thing where stuff is on the client side and then goes back into the network where it belongs," the magazine quoted him as saying. "The answering machine put voicemail by the desk, and then it went back into the network." He continued, "Your iPod is like your home answering machine. I guarantee you it will be hard to sell an iPod five or seven years from now when every cell phone can access your entire music library wherever you are."
The Register offered its own rejoinder to McNealy's comment in the same article: "Well, sure. Unless your iPod is your cell phone."Vance, Ashlee. "Sun and Apple almost merged three times – Bill Joy." The Register, January 12, 2006. *
Research into alternate fuels
Sun Microsystems Inc. chief executive Scott McNealy plays a prominent role in a Business Roundtable task force on sustainable alternative fuel growth strategies.
Along with Sun founder Vinod Khosla he has started his own fund to invest in clean tech companies. Working with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen they are financing a Seattle company that is trying to turn canola oil into biodiesel. High oil prices alone are not the reason for the spike in interest. Low corn prices and technological advances have made ethanol a potentially cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels. An energy bill that passed Congress last year has also accelerated the adoption of ethanol by forcing oil companies to eliminate a popular gasoline additive, and it mandates that more biofuel be mixed with gasoline.
In the case of Sun Microsystems, the company became interested in energy conservation because of the increasing electricity demands of more powerful computers. Sun Microsystems began to overhaul its servers to use less power after customers said energy costs were rising.
Scott McNealy has stated that oil company executives have threatened him that if he is too aggressive in pursuing alternative fuels, they will lower the price of gasoline right when he tries to get his facilities off the ground and keep it low just long enough to drive him into bankruptcy. This has prompted Scott to seek energy stabilization legislation so if the oil companies follow through on their threat, a tax will kick in to keep gasoline from dropping below a certain level, and the tax on gasoline will be removed when the price goes above that level. Scott believes stable energy prices are essential in getting people to invest in alternative fuel technologies.
References
External links
- Sun Microsystems' official Scott McNealy bio
- Scott McNealy's biography at the International Directory of Business Biographies
- Computer History Museum, 11-Jan-2006: Sun Founders Panel
- Sun Feature Story: The Fab Four Reunites (webcast of the event)
1954 births | Living people | American chief executives | American entrepreneurs | People from Indiana | Software magnates | Sun Microsystems | Cranbrook Educational Community | libertarian businesspeople
"Scott McNealy"