Rensselaer.MAG - September 1999

ENTREPRENEURS to WATCH

The information technology revolution is creating new entrepreneurial success stories every day. Following are some Rensselaer graduates making a name for themselves as entrepreneurs to watch:

Kwabena Akufo '80, co-founder and vice president of engineering for NetCore, a developer of data switches to handle Internet traffic for both long-distance and regional telephone companies. NetCore was acquired by Tellabs this summer for $575 million.
Mukesh Chatter '82 cofounded Nexabit, a developer of ultra-fast routers for the Internet, in 1996. Lucent Technologies announced in June that it was acquiring Nexabit Networks for $900 million. Chatter was named one of "the information economy's boldest innovators" in the Top Ten Entrepreneurs listing in the September issue of Red Herring magazine.
James Crowe '72, president and CEO of Level 3 Communications, has bold plans to build the first global fiber-optic local and long-distance phone network using Internet protocol. He believes his high-capacity, packet-switched $9 billion network could ultimately cut the cost of voice communications by 90 percent.
Alon Goren '87 is the chief technology officer and co-chairman of the board of Radiant Systems Inc., a maker of touch-screen applications for the retail and restaurant sector. In August, Radiant announced a partnership with America Online Inc. to make AOL's online services available at gas stations, restaurants, and movie theaters.
John MacFarlane '88 founded Software.com in 1993. In 1996 it merged with Accordance Corporation, creating a leading developer of Intranet/Internet-based server messaging software. MacFarlane is CEO of Software.com.
Curtis Priem '82 is co-founder and chief technical officer of NVIDIA Corporation, which designs, develops, and markets 3-D graphics processors and related software that provide high-performance interactive 3-D graphics to the mainstream PC market. The company went public in January.

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