A Conversation with Jonathan Schwartz

Jonathan Schwartz is chief executive officer and president of Sun Microsystems, and a member of Sun’s board of directors. He became Sun’s CEO in 2006, succeeding the Company’s co-founder and current chairman of the board, Scott McNealy.

Schwartz was promoted to president and chief operating officer in 2004, and managed all operational functions at Sun – from product development and marketing, to global sales and service. An inveterate communicator, Schwartz has led Sun’s drive to engage the marketplace, and redefine corporate transparency.

A leader behind many of Sun’s open source and standard setting initiatives, Jonathan’s been an outspoken advocate for the network as a utility with more than just value for the computing industry – but as a tool for driving economic, social and political progress.

Prior to his position as COO, Schwartz served as Sun’s executive vice president for software, its Chief Strategy Officer, and held a variety of leadership positions across product and corporate development. He joined Sun in 1996 after the Company acquired Lighthouse Design, where he was CEO and co-founder. Prior to that, Schwartz was with McKinsey & Co.

Schwartz received degrees in economics and mathematics from Wesleyan University.

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Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media. His original business plan was “interesting work for interesting people,” and that’s worked out pretty well. He publishes books, runs conferences, invests in early-stage startups, urges companies to create more value than they capture, and tries to change the world by spreading and amplifying the knowledge of innovators.

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