Scott's European Vacation
McNealy Pushes OpenSource with Governments, Shares Sun's $2B Gift of R&D
by Rebecca Smith, Office of the Chairman
There's no rest for the wicked as Scott's whirlwind travels continued; this time to Paris, Frankfurt,
Berlin and London where he met with government leaders as well as corporate customers and partners.
The Chairman continued to share Sun's Open Source strategy and urged France, Germany and the UK to
accept our $2 billion gift of R&D.
The Chairman landed in Paris, shook off the jet lag and went directly to Ecole Polytechnique where
he spoke with future engineers, industry leaders and Sun customers (or even employees) about what it
takes to start a company and why having a controversial strategy matters.
Scott then met with a series of corporate customers, bringing them up to speed on the latest and greatest
innovations from Sun and then met dinner with about 30 customers on La Rive Gauche.
The Chairman started the next day, his birthday, meeting with the French Government and then hosting a
press conference where he shared the news of the week, updated them on our latest partnerships and explained
why open source, with indemnification, is the way to go. Check out some of the resulting stories and
brush
up on your French.
Scott then hopped a plane to Frankfurt to meet with some large corporate customers and had dinner with over
130 partners and customers where he shared the big bets Sun has made over the past few years and how those
bets are paying off for customers.
After being delayed getting out of Frankfurt - due to an emergency on one of the runways (even Chairmen get
stuck at airports), Scott made it to Berlin to urge the government to accept Sun's gift of $2B in R&D and to
move Germany to an entirely open platform in order to drive innovation and competition.
Following his 24 hours in Germany, Scott moved on to London where he received the British Computing Society's
Distinguished Engineer Award at Goldsmith's Hall. Check out the write up:
Chairman Named Distinguished Fellow by British Computer Society
Sun Chairman and Co-founder Scott McNealy joined an elite circle of IT industry leaders and visionaries
on Wednesday, when he was awarded the title of Distinguished Fellow by the British Computer Society (BCS).
The BCS awards the Distinguished Fellowship to recognize members of the IT profession who have provided
notable service to the advancement of computing.
Only 24 other industry leaders - including Tim Berners-Lee, Bill Gates, Grace Hopper, Gene Amdahl and
Rob Wilmot - have received this award since it was first granted in 1971 and only 15 people can hold the
honor at any given time.
In recognizing Scott's — which in his words is really Sun's — achievement, the BCS noted
Sun's 25-year commitment to innovation has significantly contributed to the overall development of computing.
The BCS applauded Scott's leadership as a key driver in expanding the global reach of the open source movement
and guiding the world toward the realization of Sun's vision: The Network is the Computer.
Accepting the award on behalf of all the Sun employees, customers, and partners who helped make Sun the
Fortune 187 company it is today, Scott attributed Sun's success to a strategy of sharing its intellectual
property with the world and its $2 billion-a-year commitment to research and development. By helping to
eliminate the divide divide without harming the planet Sun is expanding its own market while also advancing
economic opportunity for all network participants.
Established in 1957, the British Computer Society (BCS) is the leading body for those working in IT. It has a
world-wide membership of more than 60,000 members in more than 100 countries and is the qualifying body for Chartered
IT Professionals (CITP). Visit BCS at www.bcs.org.
Check out The Financial Times' commentary on Scott's award and is acceptance speech, noting that Scott and Sun actually
understand and drive truly open standards.
Despite a jam packed agenda of 15 customer meetings the next day, Scott managed to
sit down with the BBC for
10 minutes to talk about Sun's cause to eliminate the digital divide, explain why we open source everything from
our operating system to our microprocessor design and why people love to work at Sun.
Stay tuned for more updates from the road as The Follow the Chairman series reports next from Washington DC.
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