School of Information Science - Hall of Fame
- Scott McNealy
- Born: 1946
- Field: Computing industry
- Focus: Cofounded Sun Microsystems, a leading vendor of UNIX and network computing solutions.
- Country: United States
- Era: 1970 to 1989
For more than 20 years, Scott McNealy has led Sun Microsystems to become one of the leading global suppliers of network computing solutions, with annual revenues of more than $10 billion. McNealy is President, CEO, and Chairman of the company today. His ideas about computing often predate industry trends. For more than a decade, he has been advancing Sun's slogan, The Network Is The Computer, a succinct statement of the company's vision of seamless connectivity.
McNealy's tenacity and willingness to address tough issues head on have earned him both respect and admiration. Whether he's testifying before Congress or speaking out in favor of the U.S. government's antitrust lawsuits, McNealy can be found fighting for choice. As he often says, "Without choice, there is no competition. Without competition, there is no innovation. And without innovation, you are left with very little." McNealy is also known for having said, "You have zero privacy anyway; get over it."
McNealy graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in Economics. He followed that with an M.B.A. from Stanford. Those two formative years on "the farm" soon spawned a little startup known as SUN, originally an acronym for the Stanford University Network.