Cool Person of the Day

With a new year comes a plethora of corporate shake-ups.  2012 is no different and Intel, the world’s leading manufacturer of microchips, was one of the big companies to celebrate after the annual Consumer Electronics Show by moving key personnel around.  While several well-known members of Intel’s executive staff moved around – like David Perlmutter, whom the Board promoted to Chief Product Officer – there was perhaps no greater beneficiary of the corporate shake-up than Brian Krzanich.  Brian Krzanich is now the Chief Operating Officer of Intel!

Brian Krzanich was Intel’s Vice President and General Manager for Manufacturing and Supply when he was tapped to be the new Chief Operating Officer.  Krzanich served as General Manager for Marketing and Supply since 2007 and before that, he worked for four years as part of the Assembly Test team, ensuring quality control at Intel was up to the company’s lofty standards.  Brian Krzanich first came to the attention of Intel’s executives when he devised a process to manufacture technologies at the .13 micron-process level.  This was a breakthrough at the time and helped put him on the radar of those he will now work with as Chief Operating Officer.

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There are few industries where you can rise to become a billionaire with little in the way of formal education.  In fact, outside the entertainment industry, the most probable way to become a billionaire fast is through the technology sector.  The innovation of computer devices and electronic products requires intelligence and creativity. The technology industry still rewards people who have a great idea without a lot of formal education on their resume.  Marc Benioff is one such creative and intelligent mind who has used the technology sector to amass a fortune.

Marc Benioff is the founder and CEO of Salesforce.com.  In 1999, Benioff saw the potentials of the Internet to deliver software to customers in a non-traditional way.  Believing that the Internet represented a vast pool of data and computing power, Benioff conceived of the idea of computer users operating software that they did not actually have installed on their computers.  Yes, Marc Benioff is generally considered to have conceived of Cloud computing long before it was effectively marketed!

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The Internet is a remarkably shifty place.  Like the most clique-oriented teenagers, the Internet is home to overnight successes and equally fast crashes in popularity.  The Internet is, in many ways, the ultimate medium for those who have short attention spans.  Perhaps that is why there have been remarkably few Internet music phenomena.  The latest celebrity in music to have gotten her start from exposure on the Internet is also, arguably, the one who has gained the most from her time as an Internet phenomenon.  That person is Rebecca Black.

Rebecca Black was thirteen years old when she became an Internet phenomenon with her song “Friday.”  ARK Music Factory produced the song “Friday” and its creation was a gift from Black’s mother to Rebecca.  When the video for “Friday” was released on YouTube, it languished for a month before exploding with popularity.  On March 11, 2011, “Friday” started picking up millions of hits and the song and Rebecca Black became trending topics on Twitter.  Despite having a vastly disproportionate number of “dislike” ratings by viewers, “Friday” became a legitimate Internet success when YouTube users downloaded the video over 165 million times. The video earned tens of thousands of dollars in royalties and revenue-sharing from advertising through YouTube.

But how did Rebecca Black become an Internet phenomenon and what did she do with her sudden celebrity?

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If you have seen The Social Network, you know the Hollywood version of the history of the creation of Facebook.  In the movie, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook for the programming challenge and the status of creating the “next big thing.”  When Sean Parker comes into the mix, the priority with “The Facebook” is keeping the site cool and hip, as opposed to monetizing it.  This is actually one of the details from the film that jives with reality.  However, there came a time for Facebook to monetize and when it did, it was Sheryl Sandberg who made the cool Facebook into a multibillion dollar advertising platform.

Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook.  Sandberg arrived at Facebook in 2008 after being wooed away from a potential job at Google.  That hiring was seen as a real coup for the Facebook team and shortly after joining the company, Sandberg initiated the advertising program that changed Facebook from a potential cash cow into a multibillion dollar moneymaker.  By 2010, Facebook was showing a profit, which was virtually unheard of in Internet social networks.

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Every good idea has its time.  Sometimes, the window for that idea can be very small and a business that fails to enact the good idea in a timely fashion, it can find itself in a world of trouble.  Similarly, when a business uses a good idea well, it often has to remain ahead of its competitors.  Blockbuster Video knows what it is like to wait too long to get on board a good idea; Netflix, with its innovative business strategy and product delivery method virtually buried the video rental chain.  Much of the success Netflix has had is the result of Neil Hunt.

Neil Hunt is an accomplished software engineer who rose to become one of the most vibrant executives in the technology and entertainment industries.  As the Chief Product Officer of Netflix since 2002, Hunt helped Netflix rise to become the industry leader in DVD rental services.  As a shrewd businessman, Hunt helped to build the platform for Netflix that has made it one of the most flexible and successful media delivery services ever.

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In the United States, students learn that there are two avenues to success: connections and higher education.  While nepotism and interpersonal relationships certainly have their roles in advancing one’s career, nothing takes the place of hard work.  But even those who work hard are told the only way to truly get ahead is by pursuing higher education.  The technology sector confounds those expectations by advancing educated individuals who have great ideas and needed skills, as opposed to just higher degrees.  One executive who has benefitted from corporations who value experience over degrees is Patti S. Hart.

Patti S. Hart is the Chief Executive Officer of International Game Technology, the maker of video slot machines, like Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania!  Hart joined the Board of Directors of IGT in 2006 and ascended to CEO of IGT in 2009.  Since becoming CEO, Patti Hart has expanded the influence of IGT in casinos and promoted the video game versions of IGT games, making International Game Technology even more profitable.

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Sometimes, a good idea is as simple as making a product easier to buy or rent.  What is the value of an idea that simplifies the buying experience?  In the case of Redbox, making DVDs and video games easier to rent made the company billions of dollars.  Much of the success of Redbox is the result of the hard work of Mitch Lowe.

Redbox was a novelty pilot program outside McDonald’s restaurants when Mitch Lowe joined the company in 2003.  Lowe was one of the co-founders of Netflix and he saw in Redbox a real threat to the company for whom he was working.  Adopting the philosophy of “if you can’t beat them, join them,” Mitch Lowe decided he wanted to see the Redbox model succeed.  He left Netflix and joined Redbox as a consultant.  Lowe quickly rose to Vice President of Purchasing and Operations of Redbox before the Board promoted him to Chief Operating Officer.  In 2009, Mitch Lowe was promoted again, this time to President of the company!

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The fight over Internet security and intellectual property reached some new highs in December with the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act garnering quite a bit of press and controversy.  The debate is a classic Freedom of Speech position taken by those who want the Internet to remain independent of laws and restrictions versus protecting the business interests of large companies.  One of the big multinational companies supporting SOPA in the U.S. is Sony.  Sony’s chief lawyer is Nicole Seligman.

Nicole Seligman’s official titles are Executive Vice President and General Counsel of both the Sony Corporation and the Sony Corporation of America.  She is also the Corporate Executive Officer for the Sony Corporation and something of a celebrity in the field of corporate law.  Seligman has been vigorously fighting to protect Sony copyrights and patents for films, music, video games and video game platforms since Sony Corporation of America CEO Howard Stringer personally hired her in 2001.

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When purchasing new computer equipment, now more than ever, customers are aware of the energy consumption of their hardware.  The rise in electricity costs and increased interest in environmental protection has led most consumers looking for computers and appliances to consider the energy consumption of their products before they make their final purchase.  Fortunately, with computer products like computer monitors, the energy-efficient options are obvious through Energy Star certification.  The Energy Star certification is a powerful visual tool for consumers that indicates a product has superior energy conservation capacity compared to other, similar, products of the same type on the market.  What you might not know about Energy Star certification is that it comes from a U.S. government organization, the Environmental Protection Agency.  The chief Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is Lisa P. Jackson.

Lisa Jackson is one of the most effective activist Administrators in the history of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Jackson was one of Barack Obama’s first confirmed appointees when he took office in 2009 and since she took the post, she has been tireless in promoting environmental preservation and protection.  One of those efforts was to increase the EPA standards for Energy Star certification, which would require manufacturers to meet even more stringent standards for their monitors to receive the certification!

Jackson was a natural choice for Administrator of the EPA, though she had to sacrifice a promotion to Chief of Staff to the governor of New Jersey when nominated for the post.  As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Jackson would have the greatest influence over a wide range of environmental policies that had been of interest to her for the bulk of her career.  Lisa Jackson attended Tulane University after working with Clean Sites in the aftermath of the Love Canal Disaster.  From Tulane, she pursued her Master’s Degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University where she decided that what she truly wanted to do was save the world’s resources from environmentally irresponsible businesses.

Fresh out of college, Jackson worked for the EPA and her specialty was in the political efforts of the Administration.  While she worked as both an engineer and an overseer on several important clean-up operations, Jackson made her mark at the Environmental Protection Agency by proposing important changes to how the EPA worked at disaster sites.  The Agency adopted many of those proposals, so Jackson had left her mark on the EPA long before she took over as its Administrator!

Under Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency has prioritized protecting children, the elderly and other low-income demographics.  Part of the policies she has enacted and proposed involves reducing carbon dioxide emissions and protecting the quality of air and water for all citizens.  Because so many technology manufacturers use processes that could potentially pollute the water and/or air, Lisa Jackson has been using the EPA to watch them more closely!  With her commitment and record of environmental protection, Lisa Jackson is a great EPA Administrator!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

In this age where the world is continually getting smaller through improved communications networks and less expensive means of transportation, it is not uncommon for multinational corporations, even those based in the United States, to have a very diverse executive portfolio.  Even Intel, the chip manufacturer based in Santa Clara, California, has executives from other countries.  This makes sense, though, as Intel has a habit of hiring from the best and brightest minds around the world.  After graduating from the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, with a degree in Electrical Engineering, David Perlmutter came to work for Intel.  Now, Perlmutter is an Executive Vice President for the company, as well as the General Manager of Intel’s Architecture Group.

As General Manager of the Intel Architecture Group, David Perlmutter is responsible for determining which products Intel will develop.  Because Intel has such a massive research and development branch, the company needs an executive to determine which projects are worth pursuing and which experiments need to be retooled.  The position calls for someone who has the judgment to evaluate the state of technology and the vision to push the envelope of what is possible.  David Perlmutter is just that type of visionary.

Shortly after graduation from the Technion, Perlmutter worked hard on innovating new microprocessor designs.  His engineering talents were impressive and he innovated new designs of branch target buffers and multiprocessing cache coherency protocols which he holds the patents for!  Those developments brought David Perlmutter to the attention of Intel.  Eager for just such an inventor, Intel hired Perlmutter to head their development team.  In that role, Perlmutter designed the Intel i387 and then created the microarchitecture for the Intel Pentium processor!  David Perlmutter led the teams that fundamentally change an entire generation of microchips!

With that type of success in his portfolio, the Board promoted Perlmutter through the ranks of the research and development divisions of Intel.  He had vital roles in Intel’s microprocessor manufacture for mobile phones, allowing Intel to enter the ultra-low power handheld market.  As the natural evolution of his successes, CEO Paul Otellini promoted him once again.  As General Manager of the Intel Architecture Group, Perlmutter is responsible for overseeing all of Intel’s products from data centers to consumer electronics.

Not one to rest on his laurels, David Perlmutter shepherded Intel’s latest breakthrough, Sandy Bridge, to the forefront of Intel’s manufacturing effort.  Sandy Bridge is a microprocessor with a revolutionary new microarchitecture, said to be a leap forward much like the Pentium was.  If Sandy Bridge lives up to its potential, David Perlmutter will prove that his best days are not behind him!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com