Rod Canion

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Rod Canion
Rod Canion at the 2016 Montclair Film Festival.
Born (1945-01-19) January 19, 1945 (age 79)
Houston, Texas
Alma materUniversity of Houston
OccupationCo-founder of Compaq Computer Corporation

Joseph Rodney "Rod" Canion (born January 19, 1945) is an American computer scientist and businessman, known for being the co-founder of Compaq Computer Corporation where he served as its first President and CEO.[when?][1][2]

Biography

A native of Houston, Canion graduated from the University of Houston in 1966 and 1968 with bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering with an emphasis on computer science.[3] Before co-founding Compaq in 1982, Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto had been senior managers at Texas Instruments. The three co-founders received backing from venture capitalist Benjamin M. Rosen, who became chairman of the board of Compaq.[1]

During Canion's tenure as Compaq's CEO, the company set records for the largest first-year sales in the history of American business and reached the Fortune 500 and the $1 billion revenue mark faster than any other company in history.[3][4] Canion was a shy man so he took lessons to polish his speaking style at the request of Ben Rosen, Compaq's chairman.[5]

In 1991, Canion was dismissed by Compaq's chairman, Benjamin M. Rosen.[6][7]

In 1992, Canion founded Insource Technology Group with Jim Harris and Ronald L. Fischer and served as its chairman until September 2006.[8] In 1999, he led the initial investment round for Questia Media, Inc., which provides an online research library.[9] He became chairman of the board and later helped the company raise $150 million.[9] He is a member of the Board of Directors of AMVESCAP, BlueArc, and Young Life, and HealthLink, is Director Emeritus of the Houston Technology Center, and is a member of the Board of Advisors for Sternhill Partners.[10][11][12]

In 2013, Canion published a memoir about his career in Compaq and his view of how he and others changed the IBM PC compatible industry beginning with the Compaq Portable, slowly outgrew IBM and created the Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus along with "the gang of nine" in 1988.[13] In 2016, a documentary film "Silicon Cowboys" was made, also based on the story of Compaq.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b (Joseph) Rod Canion - Compaq, Ibm, Corp, and Million
  2. ^ O'Reilly, Brian. (1985-02-18) COMPAQ'S GRIP ON IBM'S SLIPPERY TAIL Up against No. 1, the three-year-old upstart had 1984 sales of about $325 million. So far President Rod Canion hasn't made a serious mistake, but nobody's perfect. - February 18, 1985. Money.cnn.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  3. ^ a b Board of Directors | | About ChaChaAbout ChaCha
  4. ^ "Consensus, Continuity, and Common Sense: An Interview with Compaq's Rod Canion". hbr.org.
  5. ^ "THE YEAR'S 25 MOST FASCINATING BUSINESS PEOPLE Let a chicken farmer, a bus company executive, a defrocked S&L boss, the chairman of Sony, and the President of Mexico loose on the world for 365 days. This is what happens. - January 1, 1990". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  6. ^ Reinventing Compaq: Tasks for Next Chief - New York Times
  7. ^ Ben Rosen: The Lion in Winter. Businessweek.com (1999-07-26). Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
  8. ^ "Invesco | Board of Directors". www.invesco.com. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  9. ^ a b Questia Online Library
  10. ^ [1] Archived April 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ HTC - Executive Board of Directors - Houston Technology Center
  12. ^ Healthlink Incorporated Appoints Joseph E. Boyd to Board of Directors. - Free Online Library
  13. ^ Canion, Rod (2013-02-25). Open - How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination and Helped Invent Modern Computing. Benbella Books, Inc. ISBN 978-1-937856-99-1.
  14. ^ "'Silicon Cowboys': How Compaq cowpokes brought down IBM". CNET. Retrieved 2017-07-10.

External links

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