Edward Zander

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward J. Zander
Born	January 12, 1947 Brooklyn, New York
Education	Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Master of Business Administration from Boston University Graduate School of Management
Known for	IT executive

Edward J. Zander (born January 12, 1947, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American business executive. He was CEO and Chairman of the Board of Motorola from January 2004 until January 2008, remaining as chairman until May 2008. His work in the technology sector included management positions at Data General and Apollo Computer before joining Sun Microsystems in 1987 where he was later promoted to Chief Operating Officer and President in 1998 and 1999, respectively. He left Sun in 2002 to become managing director at Silver Lake Partners, a technology investment fund. He also serves on the board of directors for Jason Foundation for Education, on the science advisory board of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (where he received a degree in electrical engineering) and on the advisory board of the Boston University School of Management (where he received his Master of Business Administration and later an honorary Ph.D.). He was also a member of the board of directors at Seagate Technologies from 2002 to 2004, and at Time Warner Inc. from January to May 2007.

Contents 1 Personal 2 Career at Sun Microsystems 3 Career at Motorola 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Personal

Zander is the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland (father) and Greece (mother),^[1] who couldn't afford college and stressed education to their children. His father reportedly dreamed of being a lawyer but instead settled for a job as a furrier in order to support his ill parents. His mother, now blind with glaucoma, emigrated from Greece after her entire family was wiped out by Turkish nationalists in 1922.^[1] Growing up, he was given the nickname "Fast Eddie" by his friends because, according to a Boston Globe article, he frequently demonstrated the "hustle of a street kid spoiling for a good fight." Zander himself remarked, "I'm from New York, so I'm New York fast" (June 19, 2000). Zander attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and graduated in the class of 1968. Zander is now married to Mona Zander, and the couple has two sons.^[2]

[edit] Career at Sun Microsystems

Edward Zander's career at Sun Microsystems began in 1987. Throughout the 1990s, he rose through the ranks, first taking the role of vice president of corporate marketing, and then becoming president of Sun's software division in 1991, moving to the same position for Sun's systems division in 1995. In January 1998 he was promoted to COO for the entire company and was given the additional role of President of Sun in April of 1999. Zander was responsible for Sun's seven product divisions which included engineering, product development, sales, service and marketing. The CTO and corporate brand marketing also reported to him.

After Zander left the company in 2002, CEO Scott McNealy reassumed the duties of President and COO until the promotion of Jonathan Schwartz to those roles on April 2, 2004.

[edit] Career at Motorola

On January 5, 2004, Zander was selected by the Motorola board of directors to succeed Chris Galvin who retired in September of 2003, ending a three generation reign of his family at the head of the electronics giant.

The primary candidates considered to replace him were Zander and Mike Zafirovski, though famous executives such as AT&T's President Betsy Bernard, Qwest Communications International's Richard Notebaert and Verizon Communications' Lawrence Babbio were also considered. Earlier, Zafirovski had proved himself an excellent executive at Motorola. He arrived from General Electric and led the cell phone business to profitability. Unfortunately for him, the board was looking for a more radical change in leadership. Even though Zafirovski was virtually an outsider himself (having served at the corporation for only three years), the board of directors went with someone with more experience in a complex organization like Motorola. Zander’s impressive career at Sun and his radical "mover and shaker" attitude won the board over and he was given the position. Zafirovski was disappointed and was expected to leave the company, especially with his history of reported run-ins with the board of directors but stayed until 31 January 2005, when he resigned.

Zander had a lot to prove, and he quickly went to work. His first task was to oversee the new spin-off that Motorola had begun just shortly before he joined, Freescale Semiconductor. He announced that he would focus the company on its consumer electronics business and start taking better care of its customers (he even assigned the Chief Information Officer, Samir Desai, to one of their largest and angriest customers, Nextel).

Zander came into a tough corporate culture - Motorola's departments have been referred to as "warring tribes". He created a bonus structure that based 25% of all bonuses on customer satisfaction, meeting product deadlines, cooperation between departments, etc. He started looking to target major corporations for communications gear and services, instead of just aiming at customers of the phones and telecom companies with wireless gear. A reorganization of Motorola's business divisions became likely. Zander wanted to see new types of products that focused on melding Internet technologies with wireless phone technologies.

After Motorola posted a $181 million loss for the first quarter of 2007, Zander came under increased pressure, with Carl Icahn first demanding a share buyback, then a seat on the board of directors.

Zander stepped down as CEO on 1 January 2008, succeeded by Greg Brown, who was prior to then President and Chief Operating Officer. He was succeeded as chairman by David Dorman in May 2008.

Preceded by Scott McNealy	COO of Sun Microsystems 1998 - 2002	Succeeded by Scott McNealy
Preceded by Scott McNealy	President of Sun Microsystems 1999 - 2002	Succeeded by Scott McNealy
Preceded by Christopher Galvin	CEO of Motorola 2004 - 2008	Succeeded by Greg Brown

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ed Zander bio -- note that this source incorrectly describes his promotion to president of a Sun division in 1995 as promotion to the head of the entire company.

• Motorola fall -- Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon