50 on Power's edge, 12/25/00

By ANN SULLIVAN
Network World, 12/25/00

Service provider bravos

Barry Schuler

Denny Strigl

Johnson Agogbua
Founder, vice president of engineering, BroadBand Office

BroadBand Office (BBO) aims to deliver one-stop shopping for applications, connectivity and voice services to office building tenants. BBO is affiliated with 80 real estate companies, which will help pave the way for the on-site carrier's skyscraper conquests. Agogbua oversees product development, integration and the infrastructure build-out of BBO's network and application services. A chance to work with the former head of global infrastructure services at UUNET was a big draw for many BBO recruits, as was the monetary support of company founder Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. The money didn't stop there. In early 2000, oft adversaries Microsoft and Sun invested $25 million apiece in BBO.

William Esrey
Chairman and CEO, Sprint

Despite the failed marriage with WorldCom, Esrey has so far bucked the restructuring trend that AT&T and WorldCom are riding. Like its rivals, Sprint is trying to shift its focus from the shrinking voice market to high-growth data and Internet services. To that end, Esrey is overseeing the rollout of a wireless broadband service that provides an alternative to DSL and cable modems. The service will launch in 30 markets by the end of 2001. Esrey also deserves notice as the longest-serving chief executive in the telecom industry with 20 years at Sprint, 15 of them as CEO.

David Oros
Founder, chairman and CEO, Aether Systems

Oros is said to have an infectious enthusiasm and sense of urgency that has everyone around him trying to keep up. He is as fast moving as his company, which saw revenue grow from $1.5 million in third-quarter 1999 to $16.2 million in third-quarter 2000. Aether offers a range of products to support the wireless Web, from development kits to reformat Web pages for tiny screens to full wireless Web-hosting services.

Jerry Parrick
CEO, Yipes Communications

Parrick is no stranger to start-ups. His first venture after college was a campaign consulting business he founded in California. Between July 1999 and October 2000, a healthy chunk of venture capital dollars - $230 million, to be exact - landed in the coffers of Yipes, the San Francisco start-up Parrick runs. Why all the attention? Parrick and his team are offering service provider clients bandwidth on demand via the company's optical IP network. So far, service is available in 17 U.S. markets.

Barry Schuler
President of Interactive Services, AOL

Onetime photographer and graphic designer, Schuler handles AOL's flagship AOL service, as well as AOL Anywhere, the initiative to bring chat and interactive features to devices such as wireless phones and TVs. He believes consumers are just getting started with the 'Net and predicts a second revolution of home networks, wireless connectivity and broadband access. He plans to have AOL's instant messaging products interoperable with competing IM products in 2001.

Denny Strigl
President and CEO, Verizon Wireless

It's not hard to quantify Strigl's power: His company is the largest wireless communications carrier in the U.S. His customers number more than 25 million for wireless voice and data, and four million for paging. His coast-to-coast kingdom extends to 96 of the top 100 U.S. markets. His challenge? Integrating the wireless operations of Bell Atlantic, GTE and Vodafone AirTouch.

The rest of the 50 on Power's edge

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