Executive Leadership
K.B. "Chandra" Chandrasekhar served as CEO from inception until September 1998. He was the Chairman until September 2000. B.V. Jagadeesh served as VP Engineering and CTO from inception until July 2000. Exodus went from a zero in 1996 to $37 billion valuation in 2000.
In March 1998, Ellen Hancock, a former Vice President at IBM and CTO of Apple Computer, was recruited as President. She assumed the CEO post in September 1998. Key board members resigned in 2000. She resigned September 10, 2001.
She was followed by Bill Krause as CEO on September 1, 2001. Exodus filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter on September 26, 2001. Once the Company assets were sold off to Cable and Wireless, Bill Austin took over as the CEO.
Sam Mohammad became Vice President of Sales in 1997 and grew annual revenue from just over one million dollars to almost two billion dollars in less than 5 years. Richard 'Dick' Stoltz became CFO in 1995. Bob Sanford became VP Operations in 1997. Other key members of the team such as Barry James Folsom as consultant VP Marketing, saw the potential market for an "Internet Data Center" business; this luminary vision was key in setting the trajectory of the company, back in 1997. Michael Myers and Robert Bowman built the early backbone. Prabakar Sundarajan, Michael Myers, and Rob Bowman joined the company in 1995. Prabakar was promoted to CTO in 2000.
A key advisor, early investor and board member was Peter A. Howley. While lecturing at Stanford University on "The Centex Story", he was approached and quickly recruited by Exodus CEO Chandrasekhar. Howley was Co-founder/CEO of Centex Telemanagement (CNTX), a legendary company in telecom.. As a management consultant to top management and the board, Howley provided critical advice. These initially included actions to immediately accelerate revenue and customer growth, as well as steps to building a great service and customer oriented company. He envisioned Exodus as the EDS of the Internet world. He served from Exodus's earliest days until he resigned from the board in June 2000.
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