Raymond John Noorda, who served as CEO of Novell from 1982 to 1995, passed away at his home in Orem, Utah at the age of 82 following a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Noorda is credited with popularizing the first widespread networking software — NetWare — which was installed in hundreds of thousands PCs worldwide by the early 1990s. As CEO, Noorda grew Novell from a small organization with 17 employees to a global company of more than 12,000 employees at its height. Noorda built a tiered distribution strategy, where manufacturers and resellers thrive together in providing products and services to end users. Noorda also pioneered technology “coopetition” — alliances of technology competitors that develop common standards to grow the overall market for their products.
After his retirement in 1995, Noorda devoted his energies to the Canopy Group, an early-stage venture capital firm that has invested in over 100 companies, and extensive philanthropic activities.
http://www.canopy.com/raynoorda/
