Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy to speak at Schulze Hall May 22

Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy to speak at Schulze Hall May 22

Scott McNealy, co-founder and chairman of the board of Sun Microsystems Inc., will discuss “Powering the Participation Age” in a talk on Monday, May 22, in the auditorium of Schulze Hall on the Minneapolis campus of the University of St. Thomas.

The talk is free and open to all members of the St. Thomas community. Registration is required and can be completed by going to www.suneventreg.com and entering event code 1008.

The schedule for the event is as follows:

  • The program will begin with check-in and a buffet lunch from noon to 12:45 p.m. in the first-floor atrium of Schulze Hall.
  • Dr. Christopher Puto, dean of the St. Thomas College of Business, and Tom Awe, regional director of Sun Microsystems, will give a welcome and introductions from 12:45 p.m. to 12:55 p.m. in the Schulze Hall auditorium.
  • McNealy will deliver his remarks from 12:55 to 1:45 p.m.
  • An open forum and question-and-answer session with McNealy will run from 1:45 to 2 p.m.
  • Puto will give closing remarks from 2 to 2:10 p.m.

As background for the talk, the company says it “has always been committed to developing innovative technology that helps resolve issues that consistently confront business. Now, with our pioneering shift to free and open-source software with the introduction of the Solaris Enterprise System, we’re even more committed to the sharing of innovation through networks and communities, breaking down barriers and crossing the digital divide.”

McNealy, 51, co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982. It grew from a Silicon Valley start-up to a leading provider of network computing infrastructure with nearly 38,000 employees worldwide.

The company’s products include Java, which powers more than 3.5 billion devices; Solaris, one of only three remaining operating systems in the marketplace; the Niagara chip; and SPARC, a multicore system.

In 1999, McNealy predicted that “software will all go free,” and the market is now moving in that direction. He also foresaw the service-provider movement and predicted grid computing as well as the rise of business models based on free software.

McNealy graduated from Harvard in 1976 with a bachelor’s in economics and from Stanford in 1980 with an M.B.A.

Last July, the College of Business announced that it had become the first business school in the nation to be designated a Sun Center of Excellence, a worldwide program of Sun Microsystems that intensifies the use of technology to foster innovation in targeted industries.