Mark Pincus

Co-founder of Zynga, which makes online social games, Pincus also founded Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and SupportSoft. He has served as CEO of Zynga, which had 235 million monthly active users as...

Valentin Fyodorovich Turchin

Developer of the Refal programming language, the theory of metasystem transitions, and the notion of supercompilation, Turchin made foundational contributions to computer science and cybernetics. The philosophical core of Turchin's scientific work was...

Jeffrey (Jeff) Preston Bezos

Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Bezos graduated from Princeton University as a member of Tau Beta Pi and worked as a financial analyst for D. E. Shaw & Co. before founding Amazon...

Jeffery D. Stein

Founder and Chairman of the IT History Society, Stein has also served as the Founder and CEO of On-Line Business Systems and Convene.com, and has been active on many boards and non-profits.

Morris Chang

Founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Chang is sometimes called the father of Taiwan's chip industry. TSMC pioneered the "dedicated silicon foundry" industry and became the largest silicon foundry in the...

Charles M. Herzfeld

Director of DARPA who personally authorized the creation of the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, Herzfeld was an American scientist and scientific manager, particularly for the US Government, best known for...

Alexander Ivanovich Mikhailov

Co-founder of the Vserosiisky Institut Nauchnoi I Tekhnicheskoy Informatsii (VINITI) and co-author of the concept of Informatics, Mikhailov was a pioneering figure in the study and dissemination of scientific information. He graduated...

Biz Stone

Co-founder of Twitter, Stone also served as its Creative Director and helped to create and launch Xanga, Blogger, Odeo, and Obvious. Stone published two books about blogging, including *Blogging: Genius Strategies for...

Raymond (Ray) John Noorda

Founder and former CEO of Novell, Noorda was a U.S. computer businessman who served in that role between 1982 and 1994. He also served as chairman of Novell until he was replaced...

Edward J. McCluskey

Pioneer of digital systems design and synthesis for over five decades, McCluskey is known for co-developing the Quine-McCluskey method of Boolean function minimization. Professor McCluskey worked on electronic switching systems at the Bell...

Sergy Brin

Co-founder of Google, Inc., the world's largest Internet company based on its search engine and online advertising technology, Brin built the company alongside Larry Page. Together with Page, they are often referred...

Henry Ross Perot

Founder of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962, Perot built one of the most influential technology services companies in American history. He sold EDS to General Motors in 1984, and founded Perot...

Mitchell David Kapor

Founder of Lotus Development Corporation and designer of Lotus 1-2-3, Kapor co-founded the company in 1982 with Jonathan Sachs, who was responsible for technical architecture and implementation. He served as the President...

Robert (Bob) Cohn

Co-founder of Octel Communications, the company that commercialized voice mail and made it ubiquitous on cell phones, in companies, and on residential phones, Cohn established Octel with Peter Olson in 1982. Octel...

Albert S. Hoagland

Early designer of random access disk storage, Hoagland played a key role in magnetic head design and recording for the Random Access Method of Accounting and Control (RAMAC) disk drive, the first...

Jennifer Pahlka

Founder of Code for America and a key figure in bringing civic technology to the forefront of American public policy, Pahlka served as U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer from June 2013 to...

Jeffrey (Jeff) Hawkins

Founder of Palm Computing and Handspring, Hawkins invented the Palm Pilot and the Treo. He subsequently turned to neuroscience full-time, founding the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience (formerly the Redwood Neuroscience Institute)...

Frederick M. Hoar

A Silicon Valley public relations and marketing executive legend, Hoar died January 2 after a three-year bout with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He was 77. Hoar was one of Silicon Valley's most visible public...

Patty Stonesifer

Founding CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Stonesifer built her career on executive leadership spanning technology, philanthropy, and public service. She began in various executive roles at Microsoft before taking...

Kevin OLeary

Co-developer of SoftKey International, a software publisher of software intended for home audiences, OLeary built the company from a $10,000 seed investment from his mother into a successful CD-ROM distributor. Born in Mount...