Jonathan I. Schwartz

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Jonathan Schwartz speaking at the 2005 Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, CA
Jonathan Schwartz speaking at the 2005 Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, CA
For other persons of the same name, see Jonathan Schwartz.

Jonathan Ian Schwartz (born October 20, 1965) is the current President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, as well as a member of the Company's Board of Directors.

Schwartz attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland, and graduated in 1983. He spent freshman year of college at Carnegie Mellon University in 1983-1984, and then transferred to Wesleyan University, where he studied economics and mathematics.

Schwartz started his career in 1987 at McKinsey & Company in New York City. During that same year, Schwartz was riding on the Amtrak Colonial train that crashed in Chase, Maryland. According to him, the incident had a profound impact on his life.[1] In 1989, Schwartz left McKinsey and moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland, where he was a co-founder of Lighthouse Design. In the early 1990s, Lighthouse Design moved to San Mateo, California. Eventually, Schwartz became chief executive officer of Lighthouse.

In 1996, Lighthouse Design was acquired by Sun Microsystems.[2] Schwartz became the director of product marketing for JavaSoft in 1997 and then transitioned through a series of 5 vice president positions. In 2004, Schwartz was promoted to president and chief operating officer of Sun.[3] On April 24, 2006, he replaced Scott McNealy as CEO.

Schwartz maintains a blog at http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/. As one of the few Fortune 500 CEO bloggers, Schwartz is recognized for his efforts to bring greater transparency into the corporate world and had a public exchange with SEC Chairman Christopher Cox about the use of websites and blogs[4] to meet Regulation Fair Disclosure.[5]

Schwartz regularly promotes his view that the Information Age has given way to a "Participation Age," in which people create news, ideas, and entertainment, as well as consuming them. Schwartz also speaks about the networks as a social utility -- comparable to electricity or railroads -- that creates an opportunity to drive social, economic and political progress. [6][7]

Contents

[edit] Trivia

  • He is "one quarter (Asian) Indian, one quarter Welsh (on his Mother's side), one quarter Hungarian, and one quarter Russian (Father's side)."[1]
  • Schwartz is known for his distinct ponytail hairstyle.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Five Things, Jonathan's Blog.
  2. ^ Kalin, Sari (June 1996). "PC Expo: Sun buys object developer". Accessed on August 25, 2005.
  3. ^ Forbes.com profile for Jonathan Schwartz. Accessed on September 25, 2007.
  4. ^ One Small Step for the Blogosphere
  5. ^ The Internet and Regulation FD
  6. ^ Sun Microsystems and Emerging Markets
  7. ^ Video Highlights from the 49th Annual McKinsey Awards


[edit] Articles

  • Sun Promotes Alternate View - Techworld.com. April 11, 2005. Article where Schwartz felt the GPL was being used "as a tool allowing United States businesses to pillage developing countries of their intellectual property."

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Scott McNealy		 CEO of Sun Microsystems
2006 -		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Scott McNealy		 President of Sun Microsystems
2004 -		 Incumbent