Anyone reading accounts of the downfall of Silicon Alley might surmise that New York's technology sector consists entirely of new media. As Crain's Tech 100 attests, that's hardly the case. The list includes digital artists, CIOs, biotech leaders, educators, heads of nonprofits, analysts, venture capitalists and executives at giants Cisco, Compaq, Microsoft and AOL Time Warner. Although the Tech 100 is not definitive, it represents the diversity of the industry. And despite recent turmoil in the sector, those on the list are likely to shape the direction and growth of New York's economy--beyond technology--for years to come. The Tech 100 mini profiles were written by Laurie Joan Aron, Stephen Grandel, Michael Ha, Alice Lipowicz, Judith Messina, Miriam Kreinin Souccar, Alexia Vargas, Mark Walsh and Heike Wipperfurth. Nicholas A. Adamo, Cisco Systems Inc. Maxwell Anderson, Whitney Museum of American Art Charles Ardai, Juno Online Services Inc. Gregor Bailar, Nasdaq Stock Market Zoë Baird, Markle Foundation John Baker, Baker Capital Corp. Marc H. Bell, Globix Corp. Bruce E. Bernstein, New York Software Industry Association Henry Blodget, Merrill Lynch & Co. Denis Bovin, Bear Stearns & Co. David J. Brand, Lehman Brothers Inc. Steve Brotman, Silicon Alley Venture Partners Red Burns, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts Nicholas Butterworth, Viacom Inc. Lawrence Calcano, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Jerome A. Chazen , Chazen Capital Partners Jay Chiat, ScreamingMedia Inc. Doug Cifu, Paul Weiss Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison James Citrin, Spencer Stuart Gerald Cohen, Information Builders Inc. Jerry Colonna, Flatiron Partners Jeffrey Dachis, Razorfish Inc. Kimberly Daly, Microsoft Corp. John Delaney, Morrison & Foerster Mario Dell' Aera, KPMG Gene DeRose, Jupiter Media Metrix Jason Devitt, Vindigo Inc. David Diamond, Russell Reynolds Associates Joe Digeso, Time Warner Cable of New York City Allan H. Dobrin, NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Robert Druskin, Citigroup Inc. Karin Duncker, New Yrok Biotechnology Kevin Dunwoody, Compaq computer Corp. Esther Dyson, EDventure Holdings Inc. Kathleen Earley, AT&T Data & Internet Services Fernando Espuelas, StarMedia Network Inc. Rubi Finkelstein, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe Robert Fish, PricewaterhouseCoopers Michael Flannery, Redwood Partners Mitch Gipson, Audubon Biomedical Science & Technology Park Eric Goldberg, Unploygged Games Carl Goodman, American museum of the Moving Image Raj Gupta, YadaYada Inc. Jack Hidary, EarthWeb Inc. James Johnson, Alloy Online Inc. Richard Johnson, HotJobs.com Inc. Isaak Karaev, Multex.com Inc. Ann Kirschner, Fathom Knowledge Network Inc. Bob Kitts, Thomas Weisel Partners Jason Kilot, Blow Up Pictures Scott Kurnit, Primedia Inc. Paul Lacouture, Verizon Network Service Group Robert Lessin, Wit SoundView Group Inc. Arnold Levine, Rockefeller University Alexander Lynch, Wilson SonsiniGoodrich & Rosati Franklin Madison, Industrial Technology Assistance Corp. Douglas McCormick, iVillage Inc. Dipen Mehta, IBM's Global net Generation Business-NY Metro Benjamin Narasin, fashionmall.com Inc. Jeffrey Neuburger, Brown Raysman Millstein Fedler & Steiner Martin Nisenholtz, New York Times Digital Denis O'Leary, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Alice O'Rourke, New York New Media Association Carol Parkinson, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center Charles Phillips, Morgan Stanley & Co. Robert Pittman, AOL Time Warner Inc. Jules Polonetsky, DoubleClick Inc. Mark Popolano, American International Group Inc. Tim Purcell, J.P. Morgan Partners' Latin America Group Rosalind Resnick, NetCreations Inc. Steve Riggio, barnesandnoble.com James Robinson, RRE Ventures William Rudin, Rudin Management Co. Kevin Ryan, DoubleClick Inc. Glen Salow, American Express Co. Edwin Schlossberg, Edwin Schlossberg Inc. Walter Schubert, Gay Financial Network Inc. Ken Seiff, Bluefly Inc. Dhiren Shah, Morgan Stanley & Co. Richard Sherlund Bill Squadron, Sportvision Inc. Janet Stites, AlleyCat Information Sciences Elizabeth Stock, Computers for Youth Bruce Strzelczyk, Richard A. Eisner & Co. Chan Suh, Agency.com Ltd. Benjamin Sun, Community Connect Inc. Ravi Suria, Duquesne Capital Management Nicholas Tanzi, Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. Kevin Tice, Credit Suisse First Boston Jackson Tung, New York City Board of Education Neil Tyson, American Museum of Natural History Harold Varmus, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Kristin Wait, Korn/Ferry International Samuel Waksal, ImClone Systems Inc. Jeffrey Walker, J.P. Morgan Partners Omar Wasow, BlackPlanet.com Fred Wilson, Flatiron Partners Joanne Wilson, Marketing Opportunities for Upgrading Schools and Education Nina Zagat, Zagat Survey and Zagat.com Tami Zori, Silicon Alley Connections Nicholas A. Adamo Vice President, Northeast Area Cisco Systems Inc. Age 37 Cisco Systems, the network equipment maker, may be suffering some financial difficulties; two weeks ago it reported its first overall quarterly loss in its 11-year history. But New York customers using its access servers, telephony products and software are feeling no pain. That’s mostly because of Nicholas Adamo. Mr. Adamo is in charge of the organization that not only sells Cisco products from New Jersey to Maine but also tries to keep each and every customer happy, including those notoriously demanding ones in New York City. Mr. Adamo is responsible for more than 1,000 accounts in the city alone-mostly top corporate clients-which make up 10% of Cisco’s total sales. "We have been known time and time again to do whatever it takes to get our customers’ networks up and operational in a crunch," explains Mr. Adamo, who has plenty of Fortune 500 clients in his region. "We are also there to support them in times of outages or problems. We’ll drop what we’re doing to get it done. And in this tough community, that is essential." Top Charles Ardai CEO Juno Online Services Inc. Age 31 Charles Ardai didn’t imagine he’d be running an Internet company when he graduated from Columbia University in 1991 with an English degree. But four years later, he started Juno with hedge fund wizard David E. Shaw, whose firm Mr. Ardai had joined after college. Since then, the Silicon Alley company has become an Internet service provider with 4 million active users and 16 million registered subscribers. While Juno now ranks as one of the nation’s biggest ISPs, Mr. Ardai has had a harder time proving that a free service can become profitable. Over the years, Juno has added advertising, subscription-only premium services and different types of e-commerce to reach that goal. Most recently, Juno embarked on a controversial plan to boost revenues by selling the unused processing power residing in subscribers’ computers. A former pulp fiction writer before joining D.E. Shaw & Co., Mr. Ardai will have to come up with new plotlines to keep Juno’s story going. Top Maxwell Anderson Director Whitney Museum of American Art Techie museum chief maps digital landscape by Miriam Kreinin Souccar When Maxwell Anderson came to the Whitney Museum of American Art two years ago, the institution was practically in the dark ages of digital. To Mr. Anderson, his next move was obvious: The first thing he did was get Internet access for his staff and build an interactive Web site for the museum. After that, the Whitney director forged ahead, creating digital art exhibits-both on-line and off-line-well beyond what other museums have done. He also used the Internet to create partnerships with museums around the world. "In the past, museums have collaborated only on exhibitions, not on acquisitions and information exchange, and I’m hoping we can change that landscape," says Mr. Anderson, who came to the Whitney from the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, where he had been director since 1995. Before that, he was director of the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta. Digital art pioneer Mr. Anderson has long been an advocate of using technology to create synergies among museums. As director of the 5-year-old Art Museum Network, he has helped build a database of exhibition information from 200 of the world’s leading art museums. Before that, in Toronto, he founded the Art Museum Image Consortium, a group of 30 art museums in North America that have pooled their works into a database for use by teachers and students around the world. "A couple other museums have aspirations to be leaders in technology, but they haven’t in any way achieved the tangible results that Max has," says Tim Nye, chief executive of Alltrue Networks Inc., a Manhattan-based on-line video and broadband company, and a member of the Whitney’s tech advisory committee. "He’s extremely pragmatic and sets very achievable goals." Though Mr. Anderson advocates collaboration, he seems determined to maintain the leadership role for the Whitney in these activities. When the Museum of Modern Art announced last month that it would work with retiring Harvard University President Neil Rudenstine to create a digital database of images from museum collections for use in art history classes, Mr. Anderson was quick to point out that MoMA would basically be duplicating his efforts. Mr. Anderson, who has a Ph.D. in art history from Harvard and speaks five languages, is a self-described "techie." In one of his earlier jobs in the Eighties, as assistant curator of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he was the first one there to buy a laptop. "I have always been seduced by the toys," he says. Making the museum a destination Mr. Anderson, 45, was chosen to head the Whitney in part to bring a more scholarly approach to the museum and to make the well-regarded 71-year-old institution a "destination." Returning to Manhattan after 11 years, Mr. Anderson-son of a distinguished professor of American Literature at Columbia University-has quickly become a figure around town. On Saturdays, he makes the rounds of the Chelsea galleries with his 5-year-old son. His wife, Jacqueline, an actress, recently showed up in the "People" column of The New York Times. Top Gregor Bailar Executive VP of Operations and Technology and CIO Nasdaq Stock Market Age 39 When Gregor Bailar arrived at Nasdaq in late 1997, the average trading volume on the electronic exchange was about 700 million shares a day. Now, an average of about 2 billion shares trade each day, with peak activity spiking at above 3 billion. Nasdaq’s recent volatility and soaring trading volume have been Mr. Bailar’s greatest challenges as the market’s executive vice president of operations and technology. He makes sure the technology is in place to accommodate the exchange’s rapid expansion. To that end, Mr. Bailar proved wrong the skeptics who predicted Nasdaq couldn’t handle escalating trading activity and a transition to decimals simultaneously. Though Nasdaq did get a nine-month extension from regulators, the conversion rolled out virtually glitch-free in March and April. Nasdaq's huge extranet system can now handle up to 6 billion shares a day if necessary. Mr. Bailar came to Nasdaq via Citicorp, where he was a managing director in the global banking area. He has also had high-level positions at Perot Systems and Hewlett-Packard. At Nasdaq, he oversees 1,200 employees and a budget of $450 million. His priorities now are a rollout of Nasdaq’s next-generation trading platform, the SuperMontage, and development of stock exchanges in Japan and Europe, with the goal of creating a 24-hour global exchange. For a man who’s tamed Nasdaq’s wild jumps, that shouldn’t be too much of a stretch. Top Zoë Baird President Markle Foundation Age 48 Zoë Baird first made headlines in 1993 when she turned down President Bill Clinton’s offer to be attorney general after it came out that she had employed an illegal alien as a nanny for her child. However, in public policy and technology circles, Ms. Baird is famous for much more than that. As president of the Markle Foundation-a private philanthropy that supports both for-profit and nonprofit organizations helping to bridge the digital divide-Ms. Baird is aggressively working to ensure that the Internet is serving public needs from Kosovo to Washington, D.C. Before joining Markle in 1998, Ms. Baird was general counsel at Aetna Inc., a senior visiting scholar at Yale Law School, a partner in law firm O’Melveny & Myers, and associate counsel to President Jimmy Carter, to name but a few of her accomplishments. At Markle, a 64-year-old foundation with a $200 million endowment, Ms. Baird has taken action fast. She plans to give away $100 million over the next four years, far more than usual for a foundation that size. Under Ms. Baird, Markle is working to foster public participation in policy-making, develop interactive media for children, improve health care and support increased access to technology. Top John Baker Founding Partner Baker Capital Corp. Age 51 As many of his contemporaries were throwing gobs of money at anything with a .com suffix, John Baker, founding partner of Baker Capital Corp., a New York venture capital firm, didn’t buy into the trend. His unwillingness to be taken in by the hype of many dot-com business plans was rewarded when a number of his venture capital brethren saw their fortunes come tumbling down with the precipitous decline of the Nasdaq over the past year. Instead, Mr. Baker and his partners decided to take the long view. They focused their efforts on companies like Akamai Technologies as well as other Web infrastructure outfits, investing hundreds of millions of dollars. Baker Capital has $1.5 billion under management, one of the largest private equity pools. "We’ve focused on what we know well. Over the past year, this means we’ve continued to concentrate on real markets with meaningful revenue and solid gross margins that are scalable and well-managed," says Mr. Baker. Top Marc H. Bell Chairman and CEO Globix Corp. Age 33 Marc Bell is proof that doing what you love is the secret to success. A self-confessed "computer geek" who wrote his own game program to play Space Invaders on a school computer when he was only 13 years old, Mr. Bell has always enjoyed working with technology. In 1989, at the age of 21, he founded Globix, a leading provider of Internet hosting, networking and applications solutions. The company now boasts more than 3,500 customers, including many Fortune 500 clients, and $80 million in annual sales. Globix was one of the first high-tech companies that helped start the Silicon Alley boom, and it continues to provide Web infrastructure and technical services to many local businesses. For more than a decade, Mr. Bell also has been contributing to the community that gave him his success. Every year, through its Community Connection program, Globix donates over $1 million in technology grants to New York-based nonprofit organizations to help them utilize the Internet. Top Bruce E. Bernstein President New York Software Industry Association Age 46 In 1997, Bruce Bernstein left a career in computer consulting to become president of NYSIA. When it was founded in 1992, NYSIA was a 50-member grassroots organization. Mr. Bernstein now presides over a 500-member association widely regarded as the voice of New York’s software developers, from companies as large as IBM to tiny start-ups. Mr. Bernstein doesn’t like to take the credit. "We make a collective effort," he says. But the results under his leadership have been significant. The establishment of an advocate’s office, or ombudsman, where Silicon Alley companies can resolve problems with telecom provider Verizon is one recent achievement. NYSIA has expanded its networking and learning events. The organization has also provided member benefits, like insurance and access to reasonably priced wired real estate. But Mr. Bernstein puts lobbying first on the agenda. If the state approves the proposal, NYSIA will lead a $34 million effort to develop a New York City Center of Excellence in Computer Science. "Our mission is to strengthen technology in New York," he says. Top Henry Blodget Senior Internet Analyst Merrill Lynch & Co. Age 36 Wall Street has a new co-star on celebrity investment panels: Henry Blodget. It’s an unlikely role, especially now, for the Merrill Lynch analyst, who got his first job on Wall Street seven years ago. Having been taken to the woodshed, albeit belatedly, by the media after many of the stocks he followed and recommended fell dramatically, Mr. Blodget nevertheless has managed to survive. His staying power comes from the fact that he tempered his bullish stance on dot-com stocks last year, while those companies’ shares were still rising. In early March 2000, Mr. Blodget predicted that most Internet companies would not survive. That forecast has paid off in spades. In April 2000, dot-com stocks began to nosedive, and this year he was named the top Internet analyst by Institutional Investor. For Mr. Blodget, it was a remarkably quick rise to fame. In 1998, when he was an analyst with CIBC World Markets Corp., he predicted shares of on-line bookseller Amazon.com would climb to $400 from their trading price of $240. They quickly took off, reaching $600 at their peak, and Mr. Blodget’s fame and career followed. In 1999, he was recruited by Merrill Lynch. Nevertheless, Mr. Blodget still gets blamed for the dot-com bubble and implosion that followed. In March, he was named in arbitration by a Merrill Lynch client who said Mr. Blodget’s advice cost the investor $500,000. With Internet investment waning, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Blodget, who now covers Microsoft Corp., will also fade. Top Denis Bovin Vice Chairman of Investment Banking Bear Stearns & Co. Age 54 Denis Bovin says the best investment banking advice he ever got he picked up from working with defense companies: The way to win a war is to pick your battles. That’s precisely what he’s done as co-head of technology investment banking at Bear Stearns. After two decades at Salomon Brothers, where in the late 1980s Mr. Bovin advised AT&T on its breakup, the dealmaker joined Bear Stearns in 1992. He launched Bear Stearns’ technology group with 12 professionals, focused on information services, software and defense-an area that Mr. Bovin says is driven by technology. By choosing specific areas, the firm has been able to compete against larger rivals and win deals. Bear Stearns’ technology team, which has grown to 100 bankers, has underwritten some of the most famous, as well as some of the most infamous, companies of the dot-com boom. "I don’t think there is a tech banker on The Street who doesn’t have failures," says Mr. Bovin. As a technology and defense specialist, he serves as a civilian adviser to the Department of Defense and has received a medal for his contributions. Not surprisingly, Bear Stearns is the leading underwriter of defense companies. Top David J. Brand Managing Director Lehman Brothers Inc. Age 39 Since his days as a nuclear project engineer at General Dynamics, David Brand has always been involved in technology. But it wasn’t until he joined Lehman Brothers in 1987 that he started working on the business side of technology and became a strategic adviser for high-tech mergers and acquisitions and corporate financing. Over the past 14 years, he has been one of the leading advisers in the industry as head of Lehman’s global technology mergers and acquisitions department, managing more than 200 transactions with a combined worth of over $100 billion. His clients include IBM, AT&T, Honeywell, Loral and L3 Communications, to name just a few. "Working with technology companies has been enormously interesting and challenging, given the rapid pace of change in the industry and the impact these companies are having on the world," he says. Mr. Brand sees the current economic slowdown as merely a challenge that will become an opportunity for his clients. "We are clearly in a period of significant valuation readjustment, which could last through the end of the year," he says. "However, we expect leading tech companies to execute significant acquisitions during this uncertain period to enhance their market positions." Top Steve Brotman Managing Director Silicon Alley Venture Partners Age 33 It’s a difficult time to be a technology venture capitalist, but you wouldn’t know it from talking to Steve Brotman. In fact, Silicon Alley Venture Partners, the VC firm he co-founded three years ago, has been weathering the dot-com shakeout remarkably well. Its portfolio of companies includes several successful New York-based start-ups, with no wipeouts so far. Mr. Brotman also has pulled off the "hat trick" of funding three, so far, winning companies in a row with LivePerson Inc., Flooz.com Inc. and bla-bla.com Inc. Prior to launching SAVP, he founded AdOne Classified Network in 1994, which provided Internet infrastructure to the newspaper industry, and sold it to a media company syndicate that included Hearst, Scripps and Advance/ Newhouse. AdOne now has a combined on-line circulation of more than 24 million. Starting a new business seems to be in Mr. Brotman’s blood. "Some people say that everyone should spend at least one year living in New York City," he says. "I think everyone should also spend some time at a start-up company." Top Red Burns Chair, Interactive Telecommunications NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Red Burns brings art to science. A lifelong experimenter in media and its power to communicate, she has been instrumental in the union of creativity and computers that’s called new media, and a major force in New York’s economy. Ms. Burns, who won’t reveal her age, speaks and writes in soaring prose about the newest medium, the Internet: "Blips race down networks at incomprehensible speeds. The siren song has us in its grip," she says cryptically. But her goal is straightforward: to teach others to use communications technology in free-spirited, imaginative ways. She’s sent 115 students from NYU’s two-year program-launched in 1979-to companies and institutions like Viacom, Microsoft and the American Museum of Natural History. The Tisch program had its roots in the Alternate Media Center, where in the 1970s and 1980s Ms. Burns worked on two-way television and teletext. Today’s program’s goal is even broader. "It is about enhancing the human spirit, using the power of technology to respond to the human need for communication and expression, she writes. Top Nicholas Butterworth CEO of the MTVi Group Viacom Inc. Age 33 When MTVi inked a deal earlier this year to provide a legal, for-pay music download service and got the green light from five major record labels, it made sense that Nicholas Butterworth was in the middle of the post-Napster agreement. The Brown University graduate has always been pushing for the convergence between music and the Internet. As chief executive of SonicNet Inc., Mr. Butterworth presided over innovations in streaming audio and live Webcasting. His vision caught the eye of Viacom’s MTV Networks, which acquired SonicNet and created the MTVi group in 1999, appointing Mr. Butterworth CEO. Early last year, he became one of MTVi’s directors. "Opportunities are the same now as they were five years ago. They’re just exponentially greater," says Mr. Butterworth. In the wake of the Napster controversy the recent coup by MTVi in the music download arena should also help MTV Networks leverage its MTV360 initiative, which is intended to better integrate the two cable channels MTV and MTV2 with MTV.com. Top Lawrence Calcano Head of East Coast Technology Banking Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Understanding the Alley IPO game by Stephen Gandel Looking around Lawrence Calcano’s office is enough to stir an investor’s ire. His cherry bookshelf holds an array of trophies commemorating Internet stock offerings-deals that made his firm, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., hundreds of millions of dollars and cost investors nearly the same amount over the past year. That makes Mr. Calcano an easy target to blame in the aftermath of the tech fallout. But by his own account, he is no more at fault than anyone else. All investment banks were jockeying to underwrite Internet companies. And once those companies went public, investors were all too willing to buy their shares at ever-rising prices. "We tried to work with companies that we believed had a competitive advantage," says Mr. Calcano, who heads Goldman Sachs’ East Cost technology group and its team of 55 investment bankers. "Every single one of our deals was highly sought-after by investors and other underwriters." Early lessons Mr. Calcano and his team of bankers turned out to be the most successful, though, at landing those deals. In all, Goldman Sachs underwrote 106 initial public offerings from 1998 through 2000, raising a total of $16 billion. "We won the lion’s share of deals on the East Coast," he admits. His willingness to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit was learned early on. While he was growing up in North Point, Long Island, his father was one of the first executives at a small software company called Video Graphics, which wrote programs for mainframe computers. In his career, Mr. Calcano has chosen to focus on young companies. After working with such large companies as Microsoft at Goldman Sachs, he became in 1993 the firm’s first and only dedicated technology investment banker based in New York. At the time, most local technology companies were embryonic at best. But Mr. Calcano, now 38, saw the potential for scores of start-ups that would one day be embraced by public investors. The Dartmouth business school grad’s success is due in part to his keen understanding of how to play the IPO game: To land start-ups as clients, you have to follow the money. Entrepreneurs were often too busy building their businesses. So, initially, Mr. Calcano established connections with venture capitalists. He figured that the VCs would better understand the importance of having ties to an underwriter, even before an IPO was imminent. Star still shines As a result, the most prominent technology start-ups on the East Coast, and especially in Silicon Alley, came to Goldman Sachs by way of Mr. Calcano. In the late 1990s, Goldman handled such IPOs as DoubleClick Inc. ($238 million); Inktomi Corp. ($162 million); StarMedia Network Inc. ($105 million); and iVillage Inc. ($88 million). Surprisingly, though, the recent performance of those stocks doesn’t seem to have tarnished Mr. Calcano’s reputation or his relationship with clients. Jim McCann, chief executive of 1-800 Flowers.com, considers Mr. Calcano one of his firm’s most trusted advisers, even though shares of his company have never traded above the $21 initial offering price in August 1999. In fact, says Mr. McCann, his close ties to Mr. Calcano continue to be one of his company’s most prized assets. "One of the favors that I get asked most frequently is to provide an introduction to Lawrence Calcano," says Mr. McCann. Top Jerome A. Chazen Founder and Chairman Chazen Capital Partners Age 74 Jerome Chazen has always stayed close to his business roots when it comes to his venture capital fund. As chairman emeritus of apparel maker Liz Claiborne and one of its four founders, he continues to focus on investing in New York City’s fashion companies. While the scope of his fund’s focus is wide, he has particular enthusiasm for tech companies serving Seventh Avenue and the people who buy its products. His first dot-com investment, fashionmall.com, an on-line retailer, has fared poorly, he says. Nevertheless, he’s still excited about a new e-fashion investment in 7thOnline.com, which provides virtual showrooms, as well as tools, to help buyers allocate their budgets and visualize merchandising their floors with a vendor’s goods. Despite the current downturn in his venture fund’s portfolio, Mr. Chazen is taking a far longer-term view than most of Silicon Alley. "I’ve always been skeptical, where others have been believers," he says. "The Internet hasn’t been a magic carpet ride." Top Jay Chiat Chairman ScreamingMedia Inc. Age 69 Leave it to Jay Chiat. After he reached the pinnacle of Madison Avenue, he became a player in Silicon Alley. The legendary ad man was the driving force behind Chiat/Day, known as much for its innovative processes, such as account planning and creating a virtual work environment, as for its memorable ad campaigns. And it’s this pioneering spirit that drew Mr. Chiat to the Internet. He became an investor in 1993 in The Interactive Connection, which eventually morphed into ScreamingMedia, a Web-based content facilitator that traffics syndication-minded content providers to content-starved Web sites. Mr. Chiat became chairman and chief executive in 1998 before handing over the day-to-day reins to new CEO Kevin Clark in 1999, though he remains active as chairman. As for his legacy, Mr. Chiat has a simple request: He hopes people will remember him as a man who "wasn’t too boring." Top Doug Cifu Partner Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison Age 35 Though Silicon Alley has yet to thaw from the chill of last spring’s stock market plunge, Doug Cifu seems surprisingly upbeat. Mr. Cifu, in fact, actually seems to be enjoying the change of pace. These days, he is busy working on funding distressed businesses and restructuring financing relationships. "You get a lot more interesting work when the markets are rougher than when the Nasdaq is at 5000," says Mr. Cifu, who heads the Internet, media and technology practice at law firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. Maybe that’s because Mr. Cifu has always seen himself as more of a consultant than just a lawyer dictating the language needed to complete a deal. "I’m not shy about telling my clients what I think of their deals," says Mr. Cifu. "They look to me for more than just legal advice." His frankness has helped land some of New York’s largest technology investors. As a summer associate, Mr. Cifu was noticed by executives at Metromedia Fiber Network Inc., the $3.5 billion telecommunications firm. He has worked on deals for the company and its owner, John Kluge, ever since. Top James Citrin Managing Director Spencer Stuart Age 41 In 1993, while serving as director of corporate planning at Reader’s Digest, Mr. Citrin became aware of certain habits in his management style, which inclined him to working with clients, building teams and recruiting people into his organization. Around the same time, a partner from Spencer Stuart, the world’s largest privately held search firm, suggested that he consider becoming an executive recruiter. "It hit the mark just right," he says. "And it’s been a perfect marriage ever since." After joining Spencer Stuart in 1994, Mr. Citrin became the firm’s technology matchmaker, specializing in finding the perfect fit for many Internet executives. He currently serves as managing director of Spencer Stuart’s global Internet practice. As one of the most influential recruiters for New York’s digital economy, his major high-tech placements include top executives of Primedia, barnesandnoble.com, RSL Communications and Motley Fool. An avid runner who has completed seven marathons and the World Triathlon Championship, Mr. Citrin also has written numerous articles describing his experiences in the recruiting industry and has co-authored a best-selling book, Lessons from the Top: The 50 Most Successful Business Leaders in America. Top Gerald Cohen President and CEO Information Builders Inc. Age 60 Among the early founders of New York’s high-tech community, Gerald Cohen is regarded as a forerunner of Silicon Alley. Mr. Cohen is the co-founder of Information Builders Inc., one of the first successful New York-based software companies, which develops Web-based technology for businesses. Since launching his company nearly 26 years ago, Mr. Cohen has transformed a three-man outfit into 32 offices with more than 2,000 employees worldwide. "But one thing hasn’t changed," he says. "People continue to have a constant need for information. The only thing that has changed is how it’s being delivered." One reason for the company’s success is that Mr. Cohen understands his customers and how their technology needs constantly evolve. True to its name, Information Builders is currently the leader in business intelligence on the Web, helping companies and government organizations build valuable intelligence systems from their massive databases and deliver them through the Internet. It now has more than 9,000 global customer sites, including 92 clients from Fortune 100 companies, and over $300 million in annual sales. Top Jerry Colonna & Fred Wilson Managing Directors Flatiron Partners Ages 37 (Colonna), 39 (Wilson) Founded in the spring of 1996, Flatiron Partners was one of the first venture capital firms in Silicon Alley. Jerry Colonna, a former editor at InformationWeek, and Fred Wilson, a longtime venture capital investor with Euclid Partners, had each independently conceived the notion that investing in early-stage Internet companies could be a great business. They also were willing to jump into those investments at a stage when even angels feared to tread. "We each saw a bunch of opportunities that no one was chasing," says Mr. Wilson. Flatiron pioneered the intense role VCs came to play in their Internet start-ups. "A good early-stage venture capitalist is a combination spiritual adviser, source of capital, business adviser and parent to companies in their most dysfunctional phase," says Mr. Colonna. It was a formula that’s worked over the years. Of 55 investments, 15 have been sold and 10 went public. "In 1999 alone, we sold five businesses," says Mr. Colonna. "The internal ROI was extraordinary." Naturally, Flatiron, having witnessed the birth of high-tech, new media New York, is now embroiled in its difficult adolescence. Four of its investments have gone belly-up in the last year. "Hey, we’re not losing as much money as Cisco," jokes Mr. Wilson. Adds Mr. Colonna: "Nobody expects us to have sustained performance. This is a lifetime achievement award." But nothing has beaten the thrill of working with new companies trying to break new ground, and helping eager executives compress what should be a years-long process into a suitable Internet-speed interval, creating a culture, destiny and, the partners hope, some profits to go with it. But Flatiron’s 22 employees are not so much mulling the dot-com crash as analyzing new ventures. "We’ve taken our losses already," says Mr. Wilson. Top Kim Daly General Manager, New York region Microsoft Corp. Master of software sales brings her talent to NY by Michelle Leder She may not be from New York, but Kim Daly has already mastered the art of the New York minute. Of course, as general manager of Microsoft’s New York region, overseeing more than 100 sales employees who are responsible for more than $500 million in software sales, Ms. Daly has to be fast on her feet. After all, she’s not in Denver or Dallas, two pit stops along the way in her 10-year career with the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. After nearly a year running the New York sales operation, Ms. Daly, 33, says she fits in better here than in some of the other places she’s called home. "I was always considered a bit uptight to be working on the West Coast," she says, though the Japanese rock garden in her office belies a New Age influence. One of her top priorities is to make people more aware of Microsoft’s growing New York presence. "A lot of people don’t even know that we’re here,’’ she says of the 350 employees in New York City. From her corner office on the 21st floor of Worldwide Plaza on Eighth Avenue and West 49th Street, Ms. Daly surveys her new turf. As general manager, Ms. Daly is responsible for nearly 5,000 Microsoft customers, many of them Fortune 500 companies in the New York area. No time for sales calls now But as much as she’d like to go out there and sell Microsoft software to them and everyone else within her view, she no longer has much time to go on sales calls. Still, she considers herself a master at selling and tries to share that knowledge with her employees. Bob Vellone, vice president of Microsoft East and Ms. Daly’s boss, says she is a natural in her new job. "She’s very good at mixing it up with different people, and she brings a good balance of career and life experience to her job," he says. Getting started Ms. Daly got her start in technology as a receptionist at a small computer components company while working her way through college at the University of Phoenix. Though her job was to answer the phones, she quickly realized that she was good at selling, even if she didn’t understand what she was talking about. When the phones were slow, she started reading up on technology. She later joined Microsoft as a "demo girl" in Dallas, where her family had moved when she was in high school. "I was more than Vanna (White), but not much more," Ms. Daly now jokes. Her responsibilities entailed demonstrating new Microsoft software to businesses in the Dallas area. Gradually, she began taking on larger projects at the software giant and in 1992 helped to open Microsoft’s new Houston office. It was there that she became an itinerant executive. For two years, she commuted daily between Dallas and Houston, flying up in the morning and back in the evening. "You know it’s bad when the flight attendants get to know your name," she says. New York is Ms. Daly’s third move in as many years. Outside of a brief stint in the mid-Nineties at Sybase Inc., another large software company, Ms. Daly has spent her entire professional career at Microsoft. "They’ll take risks and give people a chance to try different jobs," she says. As a rising star at Microsoft, she has had about a dozen opportunities over the past year to meet the big boss, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates Jr. Along with other key Microsoft executives, Mr. Gates visits New York frequently for analysts meetings, product announcements and charitable events. It’s a lot more exposure than Ms. Daly ever got in Houston, Denver or even Redmond, where she worked just before coming to New York. When asked what Bill Gates is like, she replies, "He’s very smart and direct. You can almost tell he has 10 things going on at once." That’s kind of the way she feels here in New York. Top Jeffrey Dachis Co-founder and Chairman Razorfish Inc. Age 34 This year is shaping up to be a pivotal one in the tumultuous career of Razorfish co-founder and Chairman Jeffrey Dachis. After a strong initial public offering in 1999, the Web consulting and services company was perched atop the glittery world of Silicon Alley. When the stock market took a dive a year ago and the economy started to sputter, Razorfish’s share price also went south, as many old economy companies started to rethink their Web plans. As a result, 2001 has been a particularly bad one for Mr. Dachis and Razorfish. The company reported a first-quarter loss of $24.9 million on revenues of $42.7 million, down from $50.1 million for the previous quarter. Since October, Mr. Dachis has been forced to cut more than 1,000 employees. He and his co-founder, Craig Kanarick, stepped down as chief executive and chief strategic officer, respectively, earlier this month after releasing the company’s financial results, though both remain as co-chairmen. But Razorfish’s new Chief Executive Jean-Phillippe Maheu, previously the COO, will have to contend with additional cutbacks. Mr. Dachis, who since the launch of Razorfish in 1995 has proven himself to be a P.T. Barnum of the new economy, is now scrambling to reignite the momentum that has been stalled during the past year. Though Razorfish still has plenty of cash, this year’s challenges should prove to be a litmus test of Mr. Dachis’ leadership. The company must find a way to survive amid an industrywide malaise. Top John Delaney Co-Chair of New Media Practice Group Morrison & Foerster Age 36 Since leaving San Francisco in 1994 for Morrison & Foerster’s Manhattan office, John Delaney has been instrumental in developing the firm’s New York technology law practice, which is regarded by many in the Silicon Alley community as the city’s best. The Bay Area’s loss has clearly been Silicon Alley’s gain. Mr. Delaney has been working to provide New York-based Internet companies with the same high-quality legal expertise that is available to Silicon Valley companies. Born and raised in Alaska, Mr. Delaney believes that he takes after his grandfather, an Irish immigrant who eventually became mayor of Anchorage. "Maybe in choosing to become an Internet attorney," he muses, "I was at least subconsciously influenced by my grandfather’s pioneering spirit." When asked about the ongoing Internet shakeout, he points out that this is the first down cycle for many of New York’s high-tech entrepreneurs. "It is a necessary learning experience," Mr. Delaney says. "The downturn will ultimately prove to be an essential step in the maturing of Silicon Alley and will result in a more talented pool of entrepreneurs in New York." Top Mario Dell’ Aera Partner KPMG Age 42 Among New York’s growing cadre of Internet companies in 1995, young KPMG partner Mario Dell’ Aera saw an opportunity to carve out a niche. Six years later, he oversees one of the top accounting practices catering to Silicon Alley as head of KPMG’s national new media/Internet group. Clients of the affable Levittown, L.I., native range from CBS New Media to IntraLinks to Comet Systems. In that span, he has witnessed firsthand the dizzying rise and fall of the dot-com phenomenon. "We’ve learned a lot about what went wrong and why," says Mr. Dell’ Aera, who began his career 18 years ago by developing audit technology for KPMG. Now, he’s intent on helping the next generation of Internet businesses benefit from the mistakes of the first. "Today, we can have the biggest impact being involved with companies right at the outset," says Mr. Dell’ Aera. In the meantime, he’s busy dealing with the financial woes of former Alley highfliers like theglobe.com and 24/7 Media Inc. "I’ve aged a lot in the last few years," quips Mr. Dell’ Aera. Top Gene DeRose President Jupiter Media Metrix Age 38 Gene DeRose describes last year’s merger between Jupiter Communications, the leading Internet analysis provider, and Media Metrix, the Silicon Alley audience measurement company, as finding a soul mate. "We complete each other, to quote Tom Cruise," says Mr. DeRose. "The data validates the analysis, and conversely, we extend and enhance the data by providing analysis around it." Although Mr. DeRose became second fiddle in the orchestra when Media Metrix acquired Jupiter for $414 million in stock-taking a backseat to Chairman Tod Johnson on the organization chart-his role and reputation as one of the new economy’s prophets have not changed. This year is shaping up to be pivotal in the young life of the newly merged company. Messrs. DeRose and Johnson are in the thick of an extensive search for a new chief executive as they gird for battle with new competition from DoubleClick Inc., which recently started a research division called Diameter. Top Jason Devitt CEO and Co-Founder Vindigo Inc. Age 32 Jason Devitt’s eureka moment came one night while he was standing on a street corner with a business partner, looking for the nearest place to buy a cup of coffee. Mr. Devitt says he realized that despite the fact that he was packing more raw computing power than Apollo 11, he had no idea how to get to the nearest Starbucks, let alone the moon. His experience led him to launch Vindigo, a cyber city guide that works with palm devices to help users navigate the Internet and find the nearest places to eat, shop and play. After releasing its first version in 1999, the company has attracted several content partners, including Zagat.com, nytoday.com and The Washington Post. The service is now available in 20 U.S. cities and has added new features like customer reviews and discount programs from participating stores. Mr. Devitt hopes Vindigo will continue to expand and one day become a wireless map of the world that allows customers "to see every street and every store in the world" in the palm of their hand. Top David Diamond Executive Director Russell Reynolds Associates Age 33 At executive recruiting firm Russell Reynolds, David Diamond is the top headhunter scouting high-level managers for consumer-oriented technology companies. He has worked on more than 30 senior-level searches since he joined the Manhattan-based firm in 1999. "I’m influencing the technology leaders of tomorrow," says Mr. Diamond of his job. His efforts also have included nepotism. In 1997, he recruited two executives for his brother Matt Diamond, chief executive of teen marketer Alloy Online Inc. Throughout his career as a recruiter, which includes a two-year stint as managing director of the e-commerce practice at Levy-Kerson, now part of Korn/Ferry International, he has developed a nose for finding executives who succeed in tough environments. Before switching to executive recruiting, Mr. Diamond held several retail jobs following graduation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. To unwind, Mr. Diamond, has taken up a hobby: He likes to ride his motorcycle from Manhattan to upstate New York. "It’s a thrilling, dangerous experience, like the fast-paced world of technology companies," he says. Top Joe DiGeso Vice President and General Manager, Road Runner Time Warner Cable of New York City Age 34 If you want to get high-speed Internet access throughout much of New York City, then Joe DiGeso is your man. Since January 1999, he has been responsible for rolling out Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner, a high-speed cable-based Internet service, in the Big Apple. Since its launch in September 1999 to New York’s residential cable customers, Road Runner has attracted more than 100,000 subscribers and is now available in over 1.6 million homes throughout the city. But Mr. DiGeso, who first joined Time Warner Cable in 1993 as finance manager, still has plenty of work cut out for him. He will lead the continuing expansion of Road Runner’s commercial broadband service and keep a close eye on its main rivals, Excite@Home and Earthlink. A longtime resident of New York-he received both his undergraduate and M.B.A. degrees from NYU-Mr.DiGeso also was recently recognized by an industry publication as one of Silicon Alley’s top executives. He is also involved in various cable industry associations. Top Allan H. Dobrin Commissioner NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Age 53 As a veteran city official with nearly 20 years of experience in the Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani administrations, Allan Dobrin is an expert at navigating the complex bureaucracy of New York City. But he says it’s still a challenge for him to bring brick-and-mortar agencies into the digital economy. As the commissioner of DoITT, he is responsible for managing voice, video and data technologies in government operations that range from approving new fiber-optic lines to regulating cable television franchises. Mr. Dobrin is also the man behind the city’s plan to take numerous government services to cyberspace. As part of this goal, DoITT signed a deal earlier this year that is expected to bring hundreds more public Internet kiosks to New York City during the next few years. "We feel that this will be a significant improvement in access to government by the people," says Mr. Dobrin. He is determined to make city agencies as efficient and technology-savvy as any e-commerce firm in Silicon Alley. Thanks to him, New Yorkers may soon be able to pay their parking tickets or even renew their driver’s licenses with just a click of a mouse. Top Robert Druskin Chief Operations and Technology Officer Citigroup Inc. Age 53 Robert Druskin’s appointment as head of global operations and technology at Citigroup came last August, just four months after Sandy Weill took over as sole chairman and chief executive of the financial conglomerate. Mr. Druskin, a longtime Smith Barney manager, rose to his new position when Citigroup’s former head of information technology left the company. His latest title makes him a member of the elite management committee that runs Citigroup. He’s responsible for operations and technology, purchasing, shared services and real estate across the country. Mr. Druskin’s role at Citigroup stems from his tenure at Smith Barney, which he joined 10 years ago as chief administrative officer and senior executive vice president. He became vice chairman in 1993. Mr. Druskin put in a stint as head of asset management and the futures division before returning to the post of chief administrative officer in 1997 to oversee the merger with Salomon. The investment bank was eventually taken over by Mr. Weill’s Travelers Group, which merged with Citigroup in 1998. Top Karin Duncker Executive Director, New York Biotechnology Association Age 38 Karin Duncker joined the New York Biotechnology Association as executive assistant and the organization’s second employee in 1994. The 4-year-old trade group was gradually raising its profile from a casual association of biotech leaders to a voice for the nascent local industry. Ms. Duncker was quickly bumped up the ladder at NYBA as positions were created, until she landed in the director’s seat two years ago. Her greatest challenge isn’t jump-starting biotech, but keeping it here. Each year, the 30 or so companies spun out of New York City’s one biotech incubator tend to find greener pastures. That means the trade association must work on developing sources of seed money, educating venture capitalists and lobbying the state for better financial treatment, like the 1998 high-tech tax credits that NYBA helped push through. Up there on the agenda is educating the public about biotech. "In the past, the industry has been arrogant," Ms. Duncker says of the way the sector has dealt with community concerns. "Now, we’ve got to convince people it’s safe." Top Kevin Dunwoody Vice President for the Northeast Region Compaq Computer Corp. Age 50 He’s been Compaq’s vice president for the Northeast region for less than four months, but Kevin Dunwoody brings to his new post 28 years of management experience from technology heavyweights like Apple Computer and Xerox. Given the flagging PC market, he’ll need every bit of it. The Northeast region, which includes New England and New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, is key for Houston-based Compaq. Last year, the area generated $3.5 billion in sales for the computer maker. In order to keep that number growing, Mr. Dunwoody is closely involved with the company’s top 20 customers here. "I’m a working executive," he says. "I’m engaged with our biggest clients to make sure they’re satisfied." Mr. Dunwoody is responsible for Compaq’s sales, support and services in his territory. Already, he’s developed a reputation for working long hours, and he greets the office cleaning staff most nights. Not everything is hard work. The St. John’s University graduate, who grew up in Queens, relishes the fact that Compaq has a box at Yankee Stadium. "I’m a big Yankees fan," he says. Top Esther Dyson Chairman EDventure Holdings Inc. Age 49 If anyone’s been in charge of the Internet, it’s Esther Dyson-venture capitalist and publisher of influential newsletter Release 1.0. As founding chair of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, she presided for the past two years over an international agency responsible for the Internet’s core infrastructure. As chairman of EDventure Holdings in Manhattan, she invests in nascent technologies and markets and acts as the moderator of a global conversation about technology and the future. And there’s no better place than New York to do that, says Ms. Dyson. "You can go to a restaurant and hear people talking about fashion, Russian election reform and operating systems," she says. Known for her wit and honesty in an overhyped industry, Ms. Dyson remarks: "I consider myself the industry’s court jester. I watch the throne, but I do not sit on it. I see a lot, use discretion and tell the truth." Top Kathleen Earley President AT&T Data & Internet Services Age 49 When Kathleen Earley says "voice is the next killer application," you can be certain she’ll play a role in getting it out into the world. She’s an expert at delivering new technology to the masses. As the president of AT&T’s $8 billion Data & Internet Services unit for nearly two and half years, Ms. Earley built the company’s vaunted Internet Protocol Services unit-which is now the market leader-from scratch in two years. The unit offers a broad range of connectivity, including cable and DSL lines, and virtual private networks, which allow businesses to connect remote offices securely through the Internet. She also has led AT&T’s expansion of its huge Web hosting business and high-speed data services. Both are central parts of the conversion to what Ms. Earley terms an "Internet-centric" company. As for voice, AT&T already has 38 locations internally where it utilizes voice-over-Internet-protocol technology, in which voice is sent as data but is still fully intelligible as voice. Since Ms. Earley says it’s coming, you can bet you'll be hearing it soon. Top Fernando Espuelas CEO StarMedia Network Inc. Age 34 Fernando Espuelas can’t remember a time when he wasn’t an entrepreneur. When he was just 6 years old, he would sell the presents he received for Christmas and his birthday to make money. When he was a little older, he would rent his soccer balls to neighborhood kids in his native Uruguay. That may explain why he’s one of the few Silicon Alley chief executives still around today. Mr. Espuelas is holding on to his $16 million Spanish- and Portuguese-language portal, though industry investors would like to see him put his 5-year-old venture up for sale. "StarMedia demonstrates that Latin entrepreneurs can succeed big-time," he says. At work, Mr. Espuelas is known for being thorough and direct. During quarterly company meetings, called "all hands" meetings, he answers each and every question about StarMedia’s financial situation-he hopes to reach profitability by year-end-sometimes in a brutal manner. He gives his managers extensive input and feedback, but he also holds them responsible for their actions. Mr. Espuelas says he’s driven by a sense of unifying the poor and the rich in Latin America through the Internet. "Millions of people there are not realizing their full potential," he says. "They’re just focused on feeding themselves. Top Rubi Finkelstein Partner Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe Age 42 When the Nasdaq tumbled last year and the initial public offering market dried up, the actual mechanics of Rubi Finkelstein’s job may have been altered, but the overarching principles of her securities law practice remained unshaken. "The fundamentals of a good practice remain the same regardless of what the current fad is," says Ms. Finkelstein, a partner at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, one of the technology sector’s pre-eminent law firms. In the past, she has advised such Internet players as iVillage Inc. and BigStar Entertainment Inc. "As the tech sector has crumbled, our focus on solid companies with good business models has held us in good stead," Ms. Finkelstein says. So, until the IPO market rebounds, Ms. Finkelstein will continue to advise her clients to pursue alternative financing strategies, such as private placement of securities or even selling their companies. And whenever there is a good fit, she’s not shy about introducing clients to each other. Top Robert Fish Partner PricewaterhouseCoopers Age 53 Long before anyone had ever heard of Silicon Alley, Robert Fish was pioneering a venture capital and technology practice as a young partner at Coopers & Lybrand, prior to the accounting firm’s merger with Price Waterhouse. His head start in cultivating ties to the local technology community in the 1980s paid off in the following decade, as scores of fast-growing Internet start-ups hired PricewaterhouseCoopers. Now an elder statesman of the Alley, Mr. Fish oversees a group that boasts as clients more than 100 local technology and biotech firms in New York-including DoubleClick, iVillage and Juno Online Services-not to mention an equal number of venture funds, from General Atlantic Partners to Euclid Partners. The son of a Manhattan specialty carpet dealer, Mr. Fish learned early on about the challenges of running a small business in New York. When he was asked to launch Coopers’ New York high-tech practice in 1980, he jumped at the chance to work with emerging companies. Now, he’s using his experience to help clients that have been hit hard by the tech downturn to survive. Top Michael Flannery Founder and CEO Redwood Partners Age 34 When technology executives are looking for new opportunities, it’s Michael Flannery’s job to help them land on their feet. He is the founder and chief executive of Redwood Partners, one of the first firms in the country to offer executive search and consulting services to Internet technology companies. Since its launch in 1994, his firm has developed an impressive track record of a 96% success rate on its search assignments, among the best in the business. An influential voice on Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s technology committees, Mr. Flannery also serves as a strategic partner to NYC Economic Development Corp. initiatives and the Mayor’s Task Force on New Media. When asked about the current tech decline, he echoes the sentiment shared by many other recruiters: "Last year represented one of the most turbulent times in the history of the technology marketplace. Being able to support all of our clients throughout has proven to be a substantial challenge." Mr. Flannery predicts, however, that the shakeout will eventually strengthen the Silicon Alley community. "Over the next several years, it will have created a platform of businesses that will enable the New York technology industry to flourish," he says. Top Mitch Gipson Executive Director Audubon Biomedical Science & Technology Park Age 42 Whether New York becomes a major biotechnology center will be determined in part by the efforts of Mitch Gipson. As the executive director of the city’s only university-related research park and biotech business incubator since 1995, Mr. Gipson has been working to make that possibility a reality. Located at Columbia University’s campus in upper Manhattan, Audubon supplies a state-of-the-art research facility and business infrastructure to biotech start-ups. But for Mr. Gipson and others in New York’s fledgling biotech industry, there are still a number of hurdles to overcome. Those include a shortage of affordable lab space and a lack of interest by many New York biomedical academics in turning their world-class expertise into commercial opportunities. There are 35 biotech companies based in the city, with fewer than 2,000 combined employees. But those figures could soon improve, as more lab facilities become available to entrepreneurs. Columbia plans to build a second incubator building next to its center, and other institutions, including NYU, are also leading an effort to build more biomedical laboratories. All this is a welcome development for Mr. Gipson, whose Audubon center may one day rival leading biotech centers in northern California and Boston. Top Eric Goldberg Founder and President Unplugged Games Age 40 Can’t wait for the cell phone chatter to stop? Eric Goldberg has the answer: He wants people to start playing games on their cells instead. Unplugged Games was founded on the success of Mr. Goldberg’s previous company-Crossover Technologies Inc.-which supported multi-user games on the wired Internet. In December, Mr. Goldberg and his team decided that wireless multiplayer games were the way to go. His company has distribution agreements with Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, three of the largest wireless carriers. "Portability is prized," says Mr. Goldberg. "There are more Game Boys out there than Nintendo 64s and Sony PlayStations combined." Even better, wireless carriers are desperate to figure out how to charge users for Internet services, something that telephone companies’ antiquated billing systems can’t handle. More important than the games themselves is the Unplugged Games billing technology that helps telecommunications companies collect. "People have always been willing to pay for games," says Mr. Goldberg. Of course, if you insist on talking on your cell after winning a mobile game, you can always call and gloat. Top Carl Goodman Digital Media Curator American Museum of the Moving Image Age 34 When Carl Goodman started working as a digital media curator at the American Museum of the Moving Image nine years ago, most people hadn’t even heard of the Internet, let alone a digital curator. Mr. Goodman was hired in part because he knew how to operate a $100,000 computer that recorded audio digitally, something the museum was trying to use as part of an installation. But his position quickly grew into developing exhibits about technology’s effect on movies and television. Now, Mr. Goodman-who sits on the boards of innovative arts organizations such as Creative Time and Harvestworks-is also responsible for developing interactive exhibits, a growing trend in museums. One of his current projects is the creation of a handheld wireless device that visitors can use to access information as they browse through the museum’s artifacts. "This application goes beyond the usual examples of applications that would drive the adoption of wireless and mobile devices," Mr. Goodman says. "It creates a cultural application of these technologies." Top Raj Gupta CEO YadaYada Inc. Age 29 With his extensive background in bankrolling the new economy, it was a logical next step for Raj Gupta to migrate toward entrepreneurship in the world of wireless technology. During his stint at CIBC Oppenheimer Corp., he was involved in putting together deals totaling $2 billion, many of them in the wireless arena. In 1999, Mr. Gupta hung out his shingle under the aegis of YadaYada, an integrated mobile Web portal and Internet service provider for personal digital assistants. He currently has offices in New York City, San Diego and Birmingham, Ala. His belief in mobile applications was affirmed last September, when he secured $15 million in financing, which allowed him to launch a content service with the support of such major telecoms as AT&T, Verizon and Novotel Wireless. Like a barnstorming evangelist, Mr. Gupta shares his enthusiasm for the wireless world by making time in his busy schedule for frequent speaking engagements. Top Jack D. Hidary Chairman and Co-Founder EarthWeb Inc. Age 32 Jack Hidary’s experience with the Internet began when he was a student at Columbia University in the late Eighties. He helped develop ColumbiaNet, one of the first college Internet information services. "I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and I’ve always been excited about building teams to accomplish a great goal," Mr. Hidary told Crain’s New York Business for a 1999 profile. In 1994, along with his brother Murray, Mr. Hidary founded Manhattan-based EarthWeb, which soon will be renamed Dice Inc. During Jack’s tenure as chief executive, the on-line provider of information technology career resources raised about $20 million from Warburg Pincus Ventures. In December, EarthWeb sold 14 Web sites and 18 e-mail newsletters to internet.com Corp., an on-line publishing business. At that time, EarthWeb laid off employees. Mr. Hidary resigned from his CEO post earlier this year, but was named chairman. He’s now focusing on philanthropic activities, including promoting entrepreneurship. "I’m traveling to a wide range of countries to understand the state of technology and social and political conditions," he says. Top James K. Johnson President and Chief Operating Officer Alloy Online Inc. Age 33 At teen catalog marketer Alloy Online Inc., James K. Johnson is the company founder you rarely hear about-the other co-founders are oft-quoted Chief Executive Matt Diamond and Chief Financial Officer Sam Gradess. That his name is not often mentioned has little to do with his influence at Alloy Online. Mr. Johnson oversees the company’s information technology system, which targets potential customers and enhances business operations. He has the last say on IT issues. Known for his very hands-on style, Mr. Johnson has traded in his business suits for jeans and T-shirts. That’s the ideal attire for someone who works seven days a week in a firm known for its cramped office space. "Even the founders have a small cubicle," says Mr. Johnson, who helped start the company in 1996. A former corporate auditor at General Electric Co., Mr. Johnson says his motivation for being an entrepreneur came from GE’s CEO, Jack Welch, whom he describes as a dynamic business leader. "I wanted to do something with technology, marketing and the underserved teen space," Mr. Johnson says. So far, he’s succeeded. Last March, Alloy reported a fourth-quarter operating profit of 4 cents a share, on revenue of $42.5 million. Top Richard Johnson Chairman HotJobs.com Inc. Age 40 Richard Johnson has chutzpah. Two years ago, he bet $2 million-nearly half the revenues of his startup, HotJobs-on a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl. The move paid off in increased traffic to the site over the next three months. Unlike a lot of other Super Bowl dot-com advertisers, HotJobs has not only survived, but also prospered. The 6-year-old recruiting site now has over 9,100 corporate customers, including half the Fortune 500. The number of job seekers registered with the site passed 3 million this year, and revenues in 2000 nearly tripled, to $96.5 million. That isn’t to say HotJobs isn’t feeling the pain of the technology slide. This year, it has laid off 15% of its staff of about 600 and its stock has been trading below $5 a share. The company has yet to turn a profit. In March, Mr. Johnson stepped down as chief executive to jump-start the company’s business-to-business exchange for staffing agencies and hiring managers. Having made HotJobs known to the world, "I’m going to spend more time just focusing on innovation," says Mr. Johnson. Top Isaak Karaev Chairman and CEO Multex.com Inc. Age 54 Isaak Karaev’s story is a classic tale of an immigrant making good in America-with a new economy twist. Armed with a computer science background and very little else, Mr. Karaev came to New York from Russia in 1980 during a brief period when Soviet Jews were permitted to leave the country. Now chief executive of Multex.com, a leading on-line hub for financial research and one of Silicon Alley’s few profitable ventures, he’s made the most of the opportunity. "It wasn’t an overnight success," explains Mr. Karaev, who in 1986 launched Multex Software Inc., which provides real-time quotes and other financial data to individual investors. The company was snapped up by payroll giant ADP in 1989 and subsequently began selling its financial software to Wall Street investment banks. Multex was spun off again four years later to capitalize on the Internet’s emergence as an efficient way to distribute financial information. "It was free and better than having to maintain our own infrastructure," he says. Today, Multex.com claims many of Wall Street’s top firms-from Merrill Lynch to Salomon Smith Barney-as customers, which rely on the company to distribute their research on-line and help run their technology systems. "The main difference is that we’re a business that operates on the Internet, not because of the Internet," says Mr. Karaev. Top Ann Kirschner President and Chief Executive Fathom Knowledge Network Inc. Age 50 Ann Kirschner, together with Columbia University, has lifted on-line learning from the practical to the sublime. How else to describe the experience of clicking through course offerings aggregated from 13 institutions as prestigious as Columbia, the London School of Economics and the University of Chicago? Although 1,000 short seminars are free, the rest of the academic paradise-600 courses so far-costs money. Fathom is a business venture, not a blessing. Short and long courses range from $25 to $1,000 and are designed for lifelong learners who want to get their chance to study Japanese culture or catch up on data-flow systems. Ms. Kirschner, who was seduced by television from an academic career at Princeton, sees the Internet as the ultimate medium and New York as the ultimate place to create the message. "New York is the capital of intellectual capital," she says. Top Bob Kitts Partner Thomas Weisel Partners Age 42 Late last year, Bob Kitts re-emerged from the wreckage of his career. His starry tenure at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter had come to an abrupt and controversial end in 1999, when Mr. Kitts resigned after allegations that he’d had an affair with a woman he supervised, who complained of sexual harassment. Thomas Weisel, who launched Thomas Weisel Partners, a San Francisco investment bank, in 1998 during the salad days of the Internet, quietly lured him back into the game to run the firm’s financial sponsors unit, which centers on the venture capital business. Based in New York, Mr. Kitts is enjoying his new role. Although Thomas Weisel Partners is a relative upstart, Mr. Kitts often finds himself competing against firms like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in the technology arena. "Our unique proposition is that a lot of our senior bankers have bulge-bracket (top firm) experience, but we also have a boutique sense," says Mr. Kitts. Although the IPO market is drying up, Mr. Kitts is confident that Weisel’s robust sales and trading operations will compensate. Top Jason Kliot Co-president Blow Up Pictures Age 37 When Jason Kliot started a digital movie studio two years ago, it was more than a business move-it was a creative necessity. After running Open City Films-the production company he started with his wife, Joana Vicente-for three years, the duo was tired of relinquishing creative control to major movie studios in order to get their films funded. So they launched Blow Up. Using digital technology, Blow Up is able to produce films at a fraction of the cost, because the process does not require costly film stock and films can be shot with smaller crews. The digital studio now has a production fund with enough money to make four films a year. Blow Up’s first two digital films, both of which were hits, have marked Mr. Kliot’s company as one of the leaders in digital filmmaking, a trend that is expected to become mainstream in the next few years. But for Mr. Kliot, who worked as an assistant director, produced public service announcements and co-founded the hunger-fighting group City Harvest before starting Open City and Blow Up, digital filmmaking is a way for him to make the movies he wants. "We always ask, ‘Do they push the boundaries?" he says. Top Scott Kurnit Chief Internet Officer Primedia Inc. Age 47 The AOL and Time Warner coupling may have dominated last year’s headlines, but don’t underestimate the other merger between a bricks-and-mortar company and an on-line outfit—the one that brought Primedia and About.com together. The two companies, each in its own way, focus on vertical, niche markets. "There’s a wonderful commonality of approach," says Primedia’s Scott Kurnit, the mastermind behind About.com, which was previously known as The Mining Company. "When you bring two cultures together, you worry about clashes. But both of these companies are based on technology." About.com was founded on the simple idea that one site could direct users to hundreds of micro-sites, each of which can offer in-depth information on topics ranging from bungee jumping to gourmet cooking. Mr. Kurnit is one of new media’s trailblazers, having held key positions at both Prodigy and News Corp. when it briefly explored digital before he started The Mining Company in 1996. Top Paul Lacouture President Verizon Network Service Group Age 50 Paul Lacouture’s job is to run the largest wireline telecommunications network in the United States, a giant hunk of it operating in New York City. He’s also on the front lines of Verizon to meet the burgeoning demand for bandwidth created by the high-tech explosion in Silicon Alley, on Wall Street, and in offices and homes throughout the city. Though Verizon has less than 60% of the high-bandwidth market in New York right now, Mr. Lacouture says, that share has grown 40% per year over the last three years. "We’ve caught up, and we continue to meet demand," he says. That has meant accelerating its annual investment to keep the entire network up to speed. In 1996, Nynex, a Verizon predecessor, invested $1.3 billion in its telecommunications network in New York state. Last year, Verizon invested $2.4 billion. "Sometimes, we’re taken for granted, but a lot of people access the Internet through our network," says Mr. Lacouture. Top Robert Lessin Chairman Wit SoundView Group Inc. Age 46 In 1998, Robert Lessin decided to scratch his entrepreneurial itch by leaving the world of investment banking behind. After stints at Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney, he joined Wit SoundView Group, a leading Silicon Alley venture capital firm. In June 1999, Mr. Lessin took Wit SoundView public, and at its height the company traded at $22.25-though its share price has fallen considerably along with the rest of the tech market. In February, Mr. Lessin gave up his CEO duties at Wit, but he remains active as chairman; he’s looking for robust businesses, especially in the European market. He has said that he is likely to become more involved with the firm’s venture investing arm. Every now and then, he says, he has twinges of regret. "Of course, I would have been worth more money if I had stayed on Wall Street, but the value of being at the cutting edge of the new economy is priceless." Top Alexander Lynch Partner Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Age 39 Lately, Alexander Lynch has been changing jobs at a very fast clip. In the past year and a half, he has added two law firms (Gunderson Dettmer and Brobeck Phleger & Harrison) and one start-up (TradeOut Inc.) to his résumé. His latest move was in February, when he joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as the head of the Silicon Valley-based firm’s New York office. At each step in Mr. Lynch’s career, his employers have touted their new recruiting coup. That’s because the Columbia University Law School graduate is one of Silicon Alley’s pre-eminent dealmakers. Over the past few years, Mr. Lynch has helped New York companies raise $3 billion in funding, and advised on over $2 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions. His largest score was the assignment to do legal work for DoubleClick Inc.’s initial public offering at Brobeck Phleger, which he landed by spending a weekend writing up the company’s offering documents even before it had agreed to become a client. "Running a New York office for an 800-lawyer firm is a unique opportunity for someone who is 39," says Mr. Lynch. "I’m looking forward to staying in one place for a while." Top Franklin Madison Technology Program Director Industrial Technology Assistance Corp. Age 41 Franklin Madison comes from a service background: He’s tended mainframes at a major retailer and taught Harlem churches to apply for federal housing grants. And he’s a self-described geek. That makes him the perfect lifeline for literally thousands of New York technology companies, from software to biotech. He’s handled 100 consulting projects in his two years with ITAC-a nonprofit economic development corporation that is the New York Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research’s local arm-for which the clients paid a fee. He’s also swamped with phone calls from companies who want, and readily receive, a little free advice. "We specialize in the tech-teens," says Mr. Madison. Those are the companies debuting in the world of angel funding and venture capital. Mr. Madison doesn’t just supply contact information. He also evaluates companies’ business plans and talks them up to funding sources. A full 75% of the companies he’s helped are still in business. "That’s our mandate," says Mr. Madison. "To help businesses make a profit in New York City and state." Top Douglas McCormick Chairman and CEO iVillage Inc. Age 51 Douglas McCormick, a 27-year advertising and media veteran, has been a part of the wave of old media executives sent to rescue the new. "At iVillage, I have to turn a brand into a business," he says. "It was a great vision. Now we have to get it to work." Luckily for iVillage, whose stock has fallen precipitously, Mr. McCormick has been a turnaround artist before, putting the Lifetime Network on its feet. He’s eager to point out that he’s been hired for his hardheaded business approach. Mr. McCormick, under founder Candice Carpenter, rose quickly from his appointment as president in April last year. Since then, he assumed her duties as chairman and chief executive under a cloud of increasing losses. While iVillage, the on-line women’s network, is encountering rough waters, Mr. McCormick insists its fundamentals-solid editorial and 250 million page views a month-and its vision are sound. "My role is to provide the leadership and fiscal discipline to move us to profitability," he says. Top Dipen Mehta IT Strategy and VC Relationship Manager IBM’s Global Net Generation Business-NY Metro Age 27 Dipen Mehta joined IBM’s Global Net Generation Business, which nurtures tech start-ups with advice and one-stop shopping for hardware and software, last September, but he’s already had an impact on dozens of companies. In his role as tech consultant, Mr. Mehta helps new companies figure out their infrastructure strategy-what IT architecture will support their business objectives. Essentially, he works under the hood, as critical an operator in the tech business as a mechanic is in the auto industry. "My job is to help companies assess their needs and recommend technology," he says. "It’s not that sexy a subject." Sexy or not, Mr. Mehta can help make the difference between a smooth-running system and a clunker. Those companies fortunate enough to have hooked up with Net Generation and Mr. Mehta get an extra boost. He works with a select group of venture capitalists to mentor their most innovative portfolio companies and pave the way for IBM to do business with them. Top Chan Suh CO-FOUNDER AND CEO AGENCY.COM LTD. A free agent no more, consultant endures by Mark Walsh Chan Suh recalls the early days at Agency.com, when he and co-founder Kyle Shannon would celebrate company milestones with a trip to Tad’s Steakhouse for the $5.99 dinner special. The restaurant was around the corner from the Time & Life Building, where they had bartered Web development work for Time Inc. in exchange for a small office. Mr. Suh has been reflecting on those shoestring start-up days as his company fights to hang on through the brutal shakeout in the Internet consulting sector. "That’s part of our DNA-our survival instinct and our frugality," says the Agency.com chief executive, who now oversees an e-services company of 1,050 worldwide. To that end, Agency.com’s founders last week announced they will sell their shares in the firm to Seneca Investments, a holding company formed recently by Agency.com investor Omnicom Group Inc. and venture fund Pegasus Partners II. The founders will receive an initial payment of 94 cents a share, followed by a potential second payment of 47 cents a share, depending on the company’s financial results through 2006. Both will remain with the company, though Seneca will own a controlling stake. Through this deal, Mr. Suh aims to help his firm avoid the fate of competitors like marchFirst, which filed for bankruptcy in April. He has also seen rival Razorfish’s founders, Jeff Dachis and Craig Kanarick, give up operational control of their company amid sliding earnings and drastic cutbacks. So far, Agency.com has fared better. The company last week cut its workforce by 25% after reducing staff in December. As of the end of March, the company had $72 million in the bank, and it expects to save $55 million in 2001 through restructuring. The right strategy Going after Fortune 1000 clients from the start, instead of flimsier dot-coms, has helped Agency.com to endure the downturn. "We always targeted large existing companies that would benefit the most from changing the way they do things via the Internet," says Mr. Suh, 39, who worked as a media planner at big publishers including Time Warner and Condé Nast in the 1980s. Early on, Agency.com landed large accounts, such as Hitachi, GTE and American Express’ college division. The company proved adept at snapping up other interactive agencies as it grew. While firms such as marchFirst and Xceed have seen their roll-up strategies unravel, Agency.com has melded its seven acquisitions more successfully. Taking a year to integrate the consulting shops before going public in 1999 was a crucial factor in keeping Agency.com from coming apart during the tech meltdown, says Mr. Suh. But even he admits that the future is uncertain for all e-consultants. Consolidation in the works? The holding company poised to acquire Agency.com also controls Omnicom’s minority stakes in Razorfish and Organic, fueling speculation that the three shops could be consolidated. If that happens, analyst Dirk Godsey of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. predicts, Mr. Suh will wind up as chief executive of the combined entity. "He never seemed to be as caught up in the Internet hype as many others," says Mr. Godsey. Top Arnold Levine President Rockefeller University In search of the next science payoff by Judith Messina When Arnold Levine changed his graduate major from dentistry to microbiology, it wasn’t a difficult decision. After only a semester of dental school at the University of Pennsylvania, it was clear where his passions lay-he got A’s in science courses and C’s in dentistry. There was just one hitch he hadn’t counted on. Three weeks into his new studies, one of his professors received a phone call from Mr. Levine’s mother back in Brooklyn, demanding to know how her son could possibly make a living with a degree in microbiology. "Your mother called," the professor later told a mortified Mr. Levine. "But don’t worry. I took care of it." It’s a good thing he did. In the 40 years since that phone call, Mr. Levine, 61, has collected a string of the world’s most prestigious awards in science and, according to some, is on the short list for the Nobel Prize for his discovery of a gene that plays a role in more than half of all human cancers. "He is a superb scientist," says his colleague, Dr. Herbert Pardes, chief executive of New York Presbyterian Health System. Like many scientists who make a major discovery, Mr. Levine wasn’t exactly sure what he was dealing with when he initially found the gene P53, but he knew it was important. Later it was discovered that the gene helps prevent aberrant cells from reproducing and turning malignant. Science alliances Now, as president of Rockefeller University, he is continuing to take risks, gambling on where the payoffs will be in an era in which the human genome will dominate every corner of biomedical research. In the process, he is pulling Rockefeller into more collaborative ventures with other institutions. "The tradition has been to live within these gates," says Mr. Levine. "Now Rockefeller is moving into the world." The gregarious, slightly rumpled Mr. Levine seems especially suited to the task. A Bay Ridge native, he spent his teenage years ushering in his father’s movie houses and first developed his passion for science at SUNY’s Harpur College in Binghamton. In previous posts at Princeton and at Stony Brook, he developed a reputation for being an entrepreneur and for attracting top researchers. At Rockefeller, where there are no departments and the heads of the university’s 75 research laboratories report directly to him-an organizational nightmare for most executives-he relishes the interaction with other scientists. Mr. Levine is also forging new relationships with institutions that Rockefeller once counted as rivals. Its new center for the study of hepatitis C is a joint venture on the part of Rockefeller, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College. A program with NYU’s Courant Institute helps train Rockefeller students in computer science, and an unusual alliance with Bard College in Annandale, N.Y., brings liberal arts students to Rockefeller to learn about science and sends Rockefeller post-docs to Bard to get teaching experience. A $350 million renovation program is preparing the university for genomics by adding labs and overhauling its 40-bed hospital to put more emphasis on clinical research. Prize winner Mr. Levine has received myriad awards for helping to unlock the puzzle of cancer, including the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University-considered a precursor to the Nobel Prize-and the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation’s Charles F. Kettering Prize. This year, he was the first recipient of the $500,000 Albany Medical Center Prize, the largest annual prize in the United States for science or medicine. Top Benjamin Narasin Founder and CEO fashionmall.com Inc. Age 35 Fashionmall.com, a leading portal for bricks-and-mortar and on-line retailers, was definitely one of the more popular dot-coms in the acquisition game this past year. Wooed by several interested buyers, fashionmall.com played hard to get, dissatisfied with the offers that came in below the cash value of the company. That doesn’t mean that the company, led by founder and Chief Executive Benjamin Narasin, will stay pat. "We would explore strategic opportunities that would help us grow in terms of broadening our client base and growing our ad revenue," admits Mr. Narasin. "It’s clearly much more challenging for a pure Internet company to succeed versus companies that have strategic allies." Prior to starting fashionmall.com in 1994, which he took public in 1999, Mr. Narasin was chief of his own clothing label-Boston Preparatory Co.-combining his design skills with his business acumen. During his stint as CEO of BPC, Mr. Narasin schooled himself in technology by creating networking systems for the company. Top Jeffrey Neuburger Partner Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner Age 40 Jeffrey Neuburger is more than just any Internet lawyer. He wrote the book; actually, two. His first, Multimedia Law: Form & Analysis, was published in 1994 by Law Journal Seminars-Press, at a time when few lawyers cared about cyberspace. "A number of colleagues told me I was wasting my time," says Mr. Neuburger. "They thought the Internet was just another flash-in-the-pan technology-like CB radios." Those same lawyers said Mr. Neuburger was silly to leave Weil Gotshal & Manges, after six years, for the much smaller Brown Raysman to build an Internet practice. But Mr. Neuburger had a background in technology after working six years in the computer department of GE Capital, and from his college days as a computer science major at the State University of New York at Albany. Even after the dot-com stock market crash, Mr. Neuburger, who counsels such media clients as the cable division of AOL Time Warner, music company Zomba, and magazine publisher Playboy, says he is still busy. He represents Playboy in a lawsuit against Excite Inc., because the search engine is posting banners for X-rated sites whenever users request the adult magazine’s dot-com address. Playboy claims that is target advertising using the magazine’s name, and infringes on its trademark. "My clients turn to me for the deals that need to get done," says Mr. Neuburger. Top Martin Nisenholtz CEO New York Times Digital Age 46 Sometimes the best-laid plans are simply put on hold, as in the case of the New York Times Digital unit. Initially spurred by the prospect of creating a Web site with the currency to attract on-line viewers and advertising much like the newspaper, the Times’ unit, led by Chief Executive Martin Nisenholtz, was gearing up for its IPO last fall. But with deteriorating market conditions and poor ad sales, it was forced to pull back. Recently, it’s also had to scale back other digital projects, including information-sharing service Abuzz, and lay off almost 150 employees. Nevertheless, the Times Digital unit is arguably the most formidable Web site among the city’s local newspapers-both in visitors and advertising. "I don’t think content-plays alone on the Web can be successful. That’s why we’re in terrific position," says Mr. Nisenholtz, whose varied career path has included stints at Ogilvy & Mather and Ameritech. Nevertheless, he is confident that when the markets turn around, his unit will be well-positioned. "We’re The New York Times and we have different ways to get information to the public: print, on-line, and even TV as a programming vehicle. So I don’t see us as just a Web company." Top Denis O’Leary Co-head, LabMorgan J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Age 44 It makes sense that Denis O’Leary ended up in the growing technology financial services sector. He began writing computer programs in high school, long before he became a banker at Manufacturers Hanover. After heading up Chase.com, the unit dedicated to new economy investments, Mr. O’Leary will continue on that path, but with the help of a new partner. As a result of the recent merger between Chase and J.P. Morgan, he will be working with Nick Rohatyn, son of banker Felix Rohatyn. Mr. O’Leary is convinced that broadband will be important in developing the next stage of the new economy, but critical mass isn’t expected for several years yet. Nevertheless, he sees plenty of other opportunities to be leveraged currently. "As opposed to building companies from scratch, we’re taking existing franchises and building Net-centric systems for them," says Mr. O’Leary. "Brick-and-click companies look very promising." Top Alice O’Rourke Executive Director New York New Media Association When Alice O’Rourke joined NYNMA in 1998, people were still questioning whether the Internet would last. Now, she’s hard at work countering the public perception that Silicon Alley is fading away, all while expanding career and education programs for temporarily displaced dot-comers. "The Internet continues to be a powerful force for successful entrepreneurial activity here in New York, while it has recreated our global powerhouse industries to continued dominance," she says. Now, the association is reaching out to some shell-shocked tech troops with the "Control-Alt-Reboot" program, which includes a six-month reduced-priced membership. "If you lose your community at work, you can join the NYNMA community," says Ms. O’Rourke, who would not disclose her age. Under her leadership, in boom times and bust, the 7-year old NYNMA has quadrupled its membership to 8,500, making it the world’s largest regional Internet association. "NYNMA has helped new media and technology companies get started and grow," says Ms. O’Rourke. Top Carol Parkinson Executive Director Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center Age 47 When Carol Parkinson started working at Harvestworks in the mid-Eighties, digital art and music were considered fringe art forms, reserved for the downtown scene. At that time, Harvestworks’ annual operating budget was only $40,000, and few patrons even understood what the group was doing, says Ms. Parkinson, who is also an artist. Now, the center has a budget of $500,000, and digital art has become the latest trend among mainstream collectors. The center houses studios for digital art and CD-ROM design, and has a digital audio production studio where soundtracks and voice-overs are done for films. Each year, about 500 students take classes in digital media production and Web page design at the center. Top Charles Phillips Managing Director Morgan Stanley & Co. Age 41 If the military service is ideal training for the business world-as so many recruiting commercials suggest-then Charles Phillips is the poster boy, at least when it comes to Wall Street. A former Marine, the Morgan Stanley analyst used to program software designed to facilitate the loading and unloading of aircraft carriers. To his surprise, when Mr. Phillips came to Wall Street, few analysts knew much about enterprise software—large computer applications developed for businesses, much like the ones he had worked on in the Marines—or, for that matter, any of the companies in the enterprise software sector. Right away, Mr. Phillips found his niche and has dominated the area as Institutional Investor’s top-ranked enterprise software analyst for the past seven years. "Most people didn’t like to cover technology companies," says Mr. Phillips. "And enterprise software was seen as even more backwater." Mr. Phillips has used the money he has made on Wall Street to fund his more artistic ambition-music. Former co-owner of a Lower East Side jazz and R&B club called Diana’s, which closed six months ago, he is hoping to reopen in a new space with his partners. Top Robert Pittman Co-Chief Operating Officer AOL Time Warner Inc. Age 47 AOL’s Robert Pittman, who is overseeing the day-to-day activities involved in the largest old media-new media merger in history, denies that there is any effort to marginalize Time Warner execs, as some have speculated. In fact, Mr. Pittman points out, he actually reports to former Time Warner chairman Gerald Levin, the new AOL Time Warner CEO. "The company of origin is becoming a nonissue. Gerry Levin has been intent on building a strong collaborative team that’s moving ahead faster than any of us had hoped for," asserts Mr. Pittman, who was previously president of AOL Inc. and is now responsible for helping integrate the newly merged AOL TW behemoth. While most of the media and technology sector languishes in the current economic environment, AOL TW reported robust first-quarter results, $11 billion in earnings. The first postmerger numbers released by the company indicate healthy increases in revenue and cash flow versus the same period in 2000 for the combined companies. Mr. Pittman has shepherded AOL’s growth to nearly 30 million subscribers on-line, a testament to the company’s strength as much as its earnings. Top Jules Polonetsky Chief Privacy Officer DoubleClick Inc. Age 35 Jules Polonetsky didn’t invent the role of chief privacy officer, but he’s made himself a role model. DoubleClick, an Internet advertising agency, pushed the privacy issue into the spotlight in February 2000 by announcing a plan to connect people’s names, addresses and other personal data with information about where they go on the Web. In March 2000, DoubleClick, backtracking fast, appointed Mr. Polonetsky, an attorney and former New York City consumer affairs commissioner, to a highly independent post. He reports to DoubleClick’s board and is responsible for protecting the privacy of consumers. "Privacy is about consumer protection," says Mr. Polonetsky. "Before a new site can be part f our system, one of my staff has to click a box." Between policing and policy development, Mr. Polonetsky has noticed that he’s set off a trend. "Not a month goes by when another chief privacy officer isn’t announced," he says. Top Mark Popolano Chief Information Officer American International Group Inc. Age 44 "I am the man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Oz," says Mark Popolano, chief information officer of AIG, one of the world’s premier insurance companies. "I am setting up the structure that connects everyone." But i