AGE: 57, but feel much younger
TITLE: CIO
COMPANY: Coherent Inc., Santa Clara, Calif.
ANNUAL REVENUE: $500 million
INDUSTRY SECTOR: Laser and optic research, development and manufacturing
TIME IN JOB: Going into my second year, but I've been a CIO for 16 years.
BEST ADVICE EVER RECEIVED: "It's not so much whether or not you'll have problems, it's how you deal with them."
FROM WHOM: My former boss.
BEST CIO DECISION EVER MADE: Can't have multiple platforms.
BEST TECHNOLOGY DECISION: Introducing BlackBerry to the company. The executives don't carry their laptops home anymore.
BIGGEST CAREER INFLUENCE : The time I spent at Hitachi Data Systems and the CEO, Jun Naruse, transformed it from a mainframe to a storage area network company. We took it from less than 5% market share to 30% in 18 months.
BEST PERSONALITY TRAIT: Sense of humor and integrity
WORST PERSONALITY TRAIT: Too forgiving
FAVORITE GUILTY PLEASURE:I have a good friend who lives in Napa and is a vintner. In the fall I help him make wine.
FAVORITE PASTIMES: White water kayaking and wine drinking, but not together.
This was first published in May 2005