 No. 24 Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO, Sun Microsystems
Last year's position: Not placed
The classic 'man behind the man', no one can really say Jonathan Schwartz pulls any of CEO Scott McNealy's strings (nobody does) but he was seen by our panel as the future of this vendor.
Described separately by panellists as "moving [Sun] in new directions, doing exciting stuff" and "I think this guy could take Sun back to where it was", it is clear a lot rests on the shoulders of this pony-tailed 38-year-old.
Of course, the challenge may just be about the hardest in tech. Engaging in battle with IBM, HP, Dell and various parts of the open source community may prove too much for any company or executive, even one that has Java.
Schwartz has held a number of posts at Sun since 1996, when his company was acquired, and back before that was a McKinsey consultant. (Wasn't Dell's current CEO previously COO and before that a Bain & Co consultant? Not that we're making any predictions, you understand.)
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