Execution Time

Timing is everything, especially for the headhunter who got Mark Bregman to leave his job at IBM. AirMedia — a wireless player that failed with wireless push technology and is now reinventing itself as an Internet wireless company aimed at B-to-B marketing — was looking for a new CEO, and they wanted Bregman. During his 16-year IBM career, Bregman helped form the Internet division, had a hand in network computing strategy, which led to pervasive computing and, as technical assistant, even held the ear of Lou Gerstner. Turns out the headhunter called at the right time. "I had the itch to run my own show," Bregman says. So how does Bregman sum up the new challenge? At IBM, Bregman says, employees used to have contests to make the best motto. "One year I proposed, 'Execute or be executed,' " he says. "It might have been too extreme for IBM, but it's appropriate now."

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in The Net Economy.