Please briefly describe your own career path.
I started at Trinity in 1962 with an interest in computers. Some engineering professors worked to get several students access to what were then highly inaccessible computers in the United Aircraft research laboratories. We were able to have access by punching holorath cards with four tram application and began our work. After this experience, I proceeded to try to marry information technology and management. My career has been to try to take what I have learned at Trinity and turn it into the economic value that you have to produce in the market place.

What was your major at Trinity? Did you participate in any extracurricular activities or take any courses that you would recommend to current students?
I was a mechanical engineering major and I had a whole slew of extracurricular activities, but none especially career related. What mattered to me most were the professor’s extracurricular activities. The computing program, which was very new and innovative at that time was entirely above and beyond what the professors would normally do for their academic workload. They took the time to set it up for a few of us and we learned a lot. It was very important to me. More than anything else, it was the professor’s extracurricular activities that got me going.

Today everybody comes to campus with a laptop, the library provides access to information services, there is internet access in the dorm. It is a different time and space in computing now than it was when I was here. It was very much missionary back then. You had to go off in the wilderness with your computer and preach the gospel of computing to the people that you found. Today, everybody has computing information. The trick now is to sort the good information from the bad.

Can you give us an overview of Newsedge’s business operations?
Newsedge is in the business of making news valuable to the busy people that work. We do it through the Internet, through single workers who come to our newspage.com activity and through large organizations like the United Nations, Coca-Cola, or United Technologies. We go in and install an external information system that fits right into what they use everyday at work for their internal information system.

What are the major trends currently affecting the business Internet industry?
There has been a huge growth. The number of business Internet users in 1998 was 50 million. In 1995, there were only eight million people who had access to the Internet at work. In the space of four years, it is six times as big. Forester Research Associates predicts that that number, 50 million, is going to grow to 200 million by the year 2004. There is an enormous availability of information for people at work. Classic people who have been involved with servicing that marketplace, Dow Jones, etc., are only reaching a small portion of the work place. In 1998, they reached approximately eight million people of the 50 million, which means that 42 million other people at work were left to their own devices. Where do they go, what do they find? How much of their time does it take to find it? How much of the companies’ opportunity do they waste looking for information when they could be making revenues grow? There is a huge opportunity there, huge change, and we are just at the very beginning.

What could I expect from a lifestyle within a business Internet service?
Do not join the Internet marketplace if you are looking for free time.  It is a very demanding business and change is extremely rapid. The companies involved must move very fast, and that means you spend a lot of time ensuring it's success. You should not go into this business unless you love it. It is very absorbing of you, and you of it, as you become part of this speed that is the fire burning of the Internet business.

What traits and skills do you look for in a new employee?
You have to like and want to be in this business. You further need some experience in it. We are fortunate because Trinity students have a lot of Internet access before they graduate. Trinity was one of the original schools to publish a magazine on the Internet. The Trincoll Journal started by Peter Adams back in 1993, even predated Netscape. It was very innovative. Trinity students bring a lot of experience, but it is not just that experience. They must learn to apply it to our business. When I interview someone, I not only look for someone who knows the Internet, but someone who has taken the time to learn about my company, my business, and has some idea of what their unique background has in the context of my business.

What opportunities are available to recent graduates? Where could I expect to begin?
There are a number of places to begin in a company like ours and companies like Pete Adam’s, who just started his own start up. There are jobs in programming,marketing, and customer support. There are opportunities for people after they gain some of that experience, not only to grow in a business like ours, but to go out and start their own. Pete Adams is a wonderful example. He graduated in 1993, six years later he has his own company and is selling services to my company. He is looking further to bring his company public. This is six years after graduating from Trinity College. It is a terrific story!

What is your favorite and what is your least favorite thing about your job?
I love the information business. It is very exciting. I love being an entrepreneur, starting things, and making them grow. I love having people come to work in my company and taking ownership, both financially and emotionally. I love seeing people who I care about building the business world with their own personal capital. I love seeing my stock go up and I love contacting new customers. I hate bureaucracy, as well as pompous and arrogant people. I hate squabbles amongst factions in a company. I hate having a low stock price and I hate losing a customer to a competitor.

What is the typical promotion track at Newsedge?
I do not think there is a typical promotion track. In a business with so much change, there is more than enough for people to do. It is a question of getting on the merry-go-round and grabbing the next horse. There are plenty of horses to be grabbed and many of the horses do not get grabbed by anybody. There is plenty to do and we are looking for people to take the initiative and build on wherever they start.

What resources would you recommend?
The Internet is the best resource because it has all the information you need. There is our web site, our product web site, and the chairman column that I created. There is also a quarterly update and analyst update. There is no excuse for a graduate coming out of Trinity College to not know information about a company they are interviewing with.

What is the best way to stay current in your field?
The best way to stay current is to use our product. www.newspage.com is a free product and you can tailor the news around your own interests. The great richness of news is structured in a granular way. You can select your own news target, which will come to you daily. That is the benefit of the granular structure of news and the communication capabilities of the Internet.

Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to enter this field?
Now is a great time! The demand is much higher than there are people to fill the roles. We can’t find enough people. Your bargaining position as a new entrant into this field is incredibly high. We can’t find the people that we need to do the jobs that we need to get done.