Leonard Bosack
Leonard Bosack | |
---|---|
Born | 1952 (age 71–72) Cisco Systems |
Spouse | Sandy Lerner (divorced) |
Leonard X. Bosack (born 1952) is a co-founder of
He is largely responsible for pioneering the widespread commercialization of local area network (LAN) technology to connect geographically disparate computers over a multiprotocol router system, which was an unheard-of technology at the time. In 1990, Cisco's management fired Cisco co-founder Sandy Lerner and Bosack resigned.[2] As of 2010[update], Bosack was the CEO of XKL LLC, a privately funded engineering company which explores and develops optical networks for data communications.[3]
Background
Born in
His contribution was to work on the
Cisco
In 1984, Bosack co-founded
Cisco's product was developed in their garage and was sold beginning in 1986 by word of mouth. In their first month alone, Cisco was able to land contracts worth more than $200,000. The company produced revolutionary technology such as the first multiport router-specific line cards and sophisticated routing protocols, giving them domination over the market-place. Cisco went public in 1990, the same year that Bosack resigned.[2] Bosack and Lerner walked away from Cisco with $170 million after being forced out by the professional managers the firm's venture capitalists brought in.[4][5] Bosack and Lerner divorced in the early 1990s.
In 1996, Cisco's revenues amounted to $5.4 billion, making it one of Silicon Valley's biggest success stories. In 1998, the company was valued at over $6 billion and controlled over three-quarters of the router business.[4][5]
Achievements
Along with co-founding Cisco Systems, Bosack is largely responsible for first pioneering the widespread commercialization of local area network (LAN). He and his fellow staff members at Stanford were able to successfully link the university's 5,000 computers across a 16-square-mile (41 km2) campus area. This contribution is significant in its context because, at that time, technology like that which LAN used was unheard of. Their challenge had been to overcome incompatibility issues, in order to create the first true LAN system.[2]
Bosack has also held significant technical leadership roles at
Bosack's most
Charity
Together, Bosack and Lerner have a charitable foundation and trust funded with 70% of the money from the sale of their Cisco stock. The foundation is recognized for financing a wide range of animal welfare and science projects, such as The Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington.[4][9] It has also purchased an English manor house, Chawton House, once owned by Jane Austen's brother that has become a research center on 18th and 19th-century women writers.[4]
Controversy
In December 2001, a Mercury News article cited that a Stanford web site credits only Bosack and Lerner with developing the device that allowed computer networks to communicate intelligently with one another, despite Cisco spokeswoman Jeanette Gibson's claim that it was a group effort. Due to the nature of the collaboration, it is unable to be determined who did what during the process.[10]
References
- ^ a b "Computer Entrepreneur Award" Archived December 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. IEEE Computer Society. Accessed December 30, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e "Len Bosack 2009 Computer Entrepreneur Award Recipient". IEEE Computer Society. Accessed December 30, 2010.
- ^ "About" Archived October 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. XKL LLC. Accessed December 30, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e "Does Pink Make you Puke?". Forbes. Accessed December 30, 2010.
- ^ a b c "Adult Supervision". Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Accessed December 30, 2010.
- ^ "Router man". Networkworld.com. March 27, 2006. Archived from the original on April 5, 2006. Retrieved November 2, 2012.
- Mercury News.
- ^ "Calculated as 1 / (speed of light / 1231 km)". Retrieved March 3, 2016.
- ^ "Center for Conservation Biology". University of Washington. Accessed December 30, 2010.
- Mercury News. Accessed December 30, 2010.