Edward Zander
Encyclopedia
Edward J. Zander is an American
business executive. He was CEO and Chairman of the Board
of Motorola
from January 2004 until January 2008, remaining as chairman until May 2008. His work in the technology sector included management positions at Data General
and Apollo Computer
before joining Sun Microsystems
in 1987 where he was later promoted to Chief Operating Officer
and President.
After leaving Sun in 2002, he became managing director at Silver Lake Partners
, a private-equity firm. He also serves on the board of directors for Jason Foundation for Education, on the science advisory board of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(where he received a degree
in electrical engineering
), the advisory board for IOCOM Communications, and the advisory board of the Boston University School of Management
(where he received his Master of Business Administration
and later an honorary D.H.L.
). He was also a member of the board of directors at Seagate Technologies from 2002 to 2004, and at Time Warner
Inc. from January to May 2007. He has been a member of the board of directors at EagleView Technologies Inc. since 2008.
(father) and Greece
(mother), who couldn't afford college and stressed education to their children. His father reportedly dreamed of being a lawyer but instead settled for a job as a furrier in order to support his ill parents. His mother, blind with glaucoma, emigrated from Greece after her entire family was wiped out by Turkish nationalists in 1922. Growing up, he was given the nickname "Fast Eddie" by his friends because, according to a Boston Globe article, he frequently demonstrated the "hustle of a street kid spoiling for a good fight." Zander himself remarked, "I'm from New York, so I'm New York fast" (June 19, 2000). Zander attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and graduated in the class of 1968. Zander is married to Mona Zander, and the couple have two sons.
for the entire company and was given the additional role of President of Sun in April 1999. Zander was responsible for Sun's seven product divisions which included engineering
, product development, sales
, service
and marketing
. The CTO
and corporate brand marketing also reported to him.
After Zander left the company in 2002, CEO Scott McNealy
reassumed the duties of President and COO until the promotion of Jonathan Schwartz
to those roles on April 2, 2004.
who retired in September 2003, ending a three generation reign of his family at the head of the electronics giant.
The primary candidates considered to replace him were Zander and Mike Zafirovski, though well-known executives such as AT&T
's President Betsy Bernard, Qwest Communications International's Richard Notebaert
and Verizon Communications
' Lawrence Babbio were also considered. Earlier, Zafirovski had proved himself an excellent executive at Motorola. He arrived from General Electric and led the cell phone business to profitability. Unfortunately for him, the board was looking for a more radical change in leadership. Even though Zafirovski was virtually an outsider himself (having served at the corporation for only three years), the board of directors went with someone with more experience in a complex organization like Motorola. Zander’s impressive career at Sun and his radical "mover and shaker" attitude won the board over and he was given the position. Zafirovski was disappointed and was expected to leave the company, especially with his history of reported run-ins with the board of directors but stayed until 31 January 2005, when he resigned.
Zander had a lot to prove, and he quickly went to work. His first task was to oversee the new spin-off that Motorola had begun just shortly before he joined, Freescale Semiconductor
. He announced that he would focus the company on its consumer electronics business and start taking better care of its customers (he even assigned the Chief Information Officer, Samir Desai, to one of their largest and angriest customers, Nextel). During his time, he acquired 12 companies and wound down poor-performing businesses. He also ramped up the business units that sell radio equipment to the government, cable set-top box components and wireless communications products.
Zander came into a tough corporate culture - Motorola's departments have been referred to as "warring tribes". He created a bonus structure that based 25% of all bonuses on customer satisfaction, meeting product deadlines, cooperation between departments, etc. He started looking to target major corporations for communications gear and services, instead of just aiming at customers of the phones and telecom companies with wireless gear. A reorganization of Motorola's business divisions became likely. Zander wanted to see new types of products that focused on melding Internet technologies with wireless phone technologies. He established the philosophy of "seamless mobility" to integrate Motorola's products and create a sense of unity within the company.
After Motorola posted a $181 million loss for the first quarter of 2007, Zander came under increased pressure, with Carl Icahn
first demanding a share buyback, then a seat on the board of directors.
Zander has since been named a defendant in a securities fraud class action, on behalf of investors who purchased Motorola stock between July 19, 2006 and January 4, 2007, as a result of allegedly false and misleading public statements issued by Motorola during that time. Zander received $12.5 million in incentive-based pay, much of it dependent on Motorola's financial results, as well as $1.5 million in salary during 2006.
Zander capitalized on the success of the Motorola RAZR too long and was slow adopting 3G. The company lost market share to Samsung and LG Electronics. By 2007, without new cellphones that carriers wanted to offer, Motorola sold tens of millions of Razrs and their offshoots by slashing prices, causing margins to collapse in the process. Under Zander, Ron Garriques who was responsible for the successful RAZR departed for Dell Inc., while Stu Reed failed to turnaround the struggling mobile handset division. Only after Sanjay Jha
took the reins of Motorola's Mobile Devices Unit that it finally managed to right itself.
In a sign of how out of touch Zander was with the evolving cellular phone market, he rode a yellow bike onto the stage in Las Vegas for his keynote talk in January 2007 at the Consumer Electronics Show. Instead of development new and exciting products, Motorola placed Razrs into colored lingerie (red in February for Valentine's Day) while Apple Inc. unveiled the revolutionary new iPhone
.
Zander stepped down as CEO on 1 January 2008, succeeded by Greg Brown, who was prior to then President and Chief Operating Officer. He was succeeded as chairman by former AT&T CEO David Dorman
in May 2008.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
business executive. He was CEO and Chairman of the Board
Chairman of the Board
The Chairman of the Board is a seat of office in an organization, especially of corporations.Chairman of the Board may also refer to:*Chairman of the Board , a 1998 film*Chairmen of the Board , a 1970s American soul music group...
of Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
from January 2004 until January 2008, remaining as chairman until May 2008. His work in the technology sector included management positions at Data General
Data General
Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation. Their first product, the Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer...
and Apollo Computer
Apollo Computer
Apollo Computer, Inc., founded 1980 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts by William Poduska and others, developed and produced Apollo/Domain workstations in the 1980s. Along with Symbolics and Sun Microsystems, Apollo was one of the first vendors of graphical workstations in the 1980s...
before joining Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
in 1987 where he was later promoted to Chief Operating Officer
Chief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...
and President.
After leaving Sun in 2002, he became managing director at Silver Lake Partners
Silver Lake Partners
Silver Lake is a US-based private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries...
, a private-equity firm. He also serves on the board of directors for Jason Foundation for Education, on the science advisory board of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
(where he received a degree
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
), the advisory board for IOCOM Communications, and the advisory board of the Boston University School of Management
Boston University School of Management
The Boston University School of Management is the business school at Boston University in Boston. Founded in 1913 as the College of Business Administration, the school offers undergraduate and graduate programs....
(where he received his Master of Business Administration
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
and later an honorary D.H.L.
Doctor of Humane Letters
The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science, government, literature or religion, which are awarded degrees of Doctor of Science, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Letters, or Doctor of...
). He was also a member of the board of directors at Seagate Technologies from 2002 to 2004, and at Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
Inc. from January to May 2007. He has been a member of the board of directors at EagleView Technologies Inc. since 2008.
Personal
Zander is the son of Jewish immigrants from PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(father) and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
(mother), who couldn't afford college and stressed education to their children. His father reportedly dreamed of being a lawyer but instead settled for a job as a furrier in order to support his ill parents. His mother, blind with glaucoma, emigrated from Greece after her entire family was wiped out by Turkish nationalists in 1922. Growing up, he was given the nickname "Fast Eddie" by his friends because, according to a Boston Globe article, he frequently demonstrated the "hustle of a street kid spoiling for a good fight." Zander himself remarked, "I'm from New York, so I'm New York fast" (June 19, 2000). Zander attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and graduated in the class of 1968. Zander is married to Mona Zander, and the couple have two sons.
Career at Sun Microsystems
Edward Zander's career at Sun Microsystems began in 1987. Throughout the 1990s, he rose through the ranks, first taking the role of vice president of corporate marketing, and then becoming president of Sun's software division in 1991, moving to the same position for Sun's systems division in 1995. In January 1998 he was promoted to COOChief operating officer
A Chief Operating Officer or Director of Operations can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the "C-Suite"...
for the entire company and was given the additional role of President of Sun in April 1999. Zander was responsible for Sun's seven product divisions which included engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, product development, sales
Sales
A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
, service
Customer service
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
and marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
. The CTO
Chief technical officer
A chief technology officer is an executive-level position in a company or other entity whose occupant is focused on scientific and technological issues within an organization....
and corporate brand marketing also reported to him.
After Zander left the company in 2002, CEO Scott McNealy
Scott McNealy
Scott McNealy is an American business executive. He co-founded computer technology company Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Bill Joy, and Andy Bechtolsheim.-Biography:...
reassumed the duties of President and COO until the promotion of Jonathan Schwartz
Jonathan I. Schwartz
Jonathan Ian Schwartz is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Picture of Health. He was formerly the President and CEO of Sun Microsystems prior to its acquisition by Oracle, and previously the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lighthouse Design, Ltd., a software company focused on...
to those roles on April 2, 2004.
Career at Motorola
On January 5, 2004, Zander was selected by the Motorola board of directors to succeed Chris GalvinChristopher Galvin
Christopher B. Galvin is the grandson of Paul Galvin and the son of Robert Galvin , and is chairman, CEO and co-founder of Harrison Street Capital LLC....
who retired in September 2003, ending a three generation reign of his family at the head of the electronics giant.
The primary candidates considered to replace him were Zander and Mike Zafirovski, though well-known executives such as AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
's President Betsy Bernard, Qwest Communications International's Richard Notebaert
Richard Notebaert
Richard C. Notebaert is the former Chairman and CEO of Qwest, Tellabs and Ameritech. He was credited for saving Qwest and Tellabs from bankruptcy, and making Ameritech the most successful "Baby Bell"....
and Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
' Lawrence Babbio were also considered. Earlier, Zafirovski had proved himself an excellent executive at Motorola. He arrived from General Electric and led the cell phone business to profitability. Unfortunately for him, the board was looking for a more radical change in leadership. Even though Zafirovski was virtually an outsider himself (having served at the corporation for only three years), the board of directors went with someone with more experience in a complex organization like Motorola. Zander’s impressive career at Sun and his radical "mover and shaker" attitude won the board over and he was given the position. Zafirovski was disappointed and was expected to leave the company, especially with his history of reported run-ins with the board of directors but stayed until 31 January 2005, when he resigned.
Zander had a lot to prove, and he quickly went to work. His first task was to oversee the new spin-off that Motorola had begun just shortly before he joined, Freescale Semiconductor
Freescale Semiconductor
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. is a producer and designer of embedded hardware, with 17 billion semiconductor chips in use around the world. The company focuses on the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets with its product portfolio including microprocessors, microcontrollers,...
. He announced that he would focus the company on its consumer electronics business and start taking better care of its customers (he even assigned the Chief Information Officer, Samir Desai, to one of their largest and angriest customers, Nextel). During his time, he acquired 12 companies and wound down poor-performing businesses. He also ramped up the business units that sell radio equipment to the government, cable set-top box components and wireless communications products.
Zander came into a tough corporate culture - Motorola's departments have been referred to as "warring tribes". He created a bonus structure that based 25% of all bonuses on customer satisfaction, meeting product deadlines, cooperation between departments, etc. He started looking to target major corporations for communications gear and services, instead of just aiming at customers of the phones and telecom companies with wireless gear. A reorganization of Motorola's business divisions became likely. Zander wanted to see new types of products that focused on melding Internet technologies with wireless phone technologies. He established the philosophy of "seamless mobility" to integrate Motorola's products and create a sense of unity within the company.
After Motorola posted a $181 million loss for the first quarter of 2007, Zander came under increased pressure, with Carl Icahn
Carl Icahn
Carl Celian Icahn is an American business magnate and investor.-Biography:Icahn was raised in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York City, where he attended Far Rockaway High School. His father was a cantor, his mother was a schoolteacher...
first demanding a share buyback, then a seat on the board of directors.
Zander has since been named a defendant in a securities fraud class action, on behalf of investors who purchased Motorola stock between July 19, 2006 and January 4, 2007, as a result of allegedly false and misleading public statements issued by Motorola during that time. Zander received $12.5 million in incentive-based pay, much of it dependent on Motorola's financial results, as well as $1.5 million in salary during 2006.
Zander capitalized on the success of the Motorola RAZR too long and was slow adopting 3G. The company lost market share to Samsung and LG Electronics. By 2007, without new cellphones that carriers wanted to offer, Motorola sold tens of millions of Razrs and their offshoots by slashing prices, causing margins to collapse in the process. Under Zander, Ron Garriques who was responsible for the successful RAZR departed for Dell Inc., while Stu Reed failed to turnaround the struggling mobile handset division. Only after Sanjay Jha
Sanjay Jha
Sanjay K. Jha is chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility and previously served as co-chief executive officer of Motorola. from 2008.-Early life:...
took the reins of Motorola's Mobile Devices Unit that it finally managed to right itself.
In a sign of how out of touch Zander was with the evolving cellular phone market, he rode a yellow bike onto the stage in Las Vegas for his keynote talk in January 2007 at the Consumer Electronics Show. Instead of development new and exciting products, Motorola placed Razrs into colored lingerie (red in February for Valentine's Day) while Apple Inc. unveiled the revolutionary new iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
.
Zander stepped down as CEO on 1 January 2008, succeeded by Greg Brown, who was prior to then President and Chief Operating Officer. He was succeeded as chairman by former AT&T CEO David Dorman
David Dorman
David W. Dorman is an American Telecommunications executive and is currently the non-executive chairman of Motorola....
in May 2008.
External links
- Ed Zander bio -- note that this source incorrectly describes his promotion to president of a Sun division in 1995 as promotion to the head of the entire company
- Motorola insider tells all about the fall of a technology icon, Ryan Block, EngadgetEngadgetEngadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Though on appearance Engadget functions much like a blog and may be defined as such, much of its editorial content takes the form of an online magazine...
, March 26, 2008