Edward J. Zander ’68, MBA
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Former Chairman, Motorola, Inc.
Edward J. Zander has spent more than 35 years in the technology sector. He has played a key role in shaping some of the major paradigm shifts in technology that impact the world today. These include the move from mainframes to minicomputers; minicomputers to workstations; PCs to networking and to the Internet; hardware to software; and the revolution in wireless devices and mobility.
Zander was most recently chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Motorola. During his four-year tenure, he made the RAZR the best-selling cell phone in history and reshaped Motorola’s image worldwide with the popular “Hello Moto” campaign. He sharpened Motorola’s edge in technology innovation; delivered on 12 consecutive quarters of revenue growth; streamlined the business to increase operating efficiencies worldwide; significantly improved the balance sheet and acquired and divested businesses to strengthen the company’s competitive position. During his four years, the company doubled its revenue and achieved double-digit earnings for the first time in over a decade.
Prior to Motorola, Zander was president and chief operating officer of Sun Microsystems until 2002. During his 15 years at the company, he grew Sun to $18 billion in revenues; established the company as number one in the server market; and built it into the pre-eminent supplier of network software infrastructure with Solaris and Java. In addition, he was responsible for developing the “dot in dot com” campaign establishing Sun as a leader in Internet computing. Before Sun, he worked at Apollo Computer as vice president of marketing and at Data General in a number of marketing and engineering positions.
Zander was also managing director at Silver Lake Partners, a leading private equity fund, in 2003, and has served on the board of directors for several technology companies. Today he is a director of Netezza Corp, NetSuite, and Seagate Technology. He also served as chairman of the Technology CEO Council in Washington, D.C., and has been on a number of civic and philanthropic boards. He is a member of the board of trustees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the School of Management at Boston University.
Zander received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a master's degree in business administration as well as an honorary Ph.D. from Boston University. Zander and his wife, Mona, have two sons and reside in Carmel, California.