I've heard a rumor that One Laptop Per Child is very near to announcing a new CEO. Nicholas Negroponte may finally found someone to take over the day-to-day leadership of OLPC. As as I told Techlife, OLPC needs a seasoned technology executive or a strong primary education practitioner.
While he would not be my first choice, it seems like Will Poole might be OLPC's man. Today he announced his retirement amid a leadership shuffle at Microsoft. He's leaving the Unlimited Potential Group, Microsoft's emerging markets strategy division "to pursue philanthropic and entrepreneurial interests". Does that sound like OLPC to you too?
No matter who might become OLPC's next CEO, I still say that it would foretell Nicholas Negroponte's exit. But before he goes, OLPC News readers need to vote.
You need to decide who would make the best Nicholas Negroponte for a day. You get only one vote, but like LesleyT, feel free to get your friends to stuff the ballot for your favorite course of action. $50 in XOexplosion gear is up for the top three wanna- be Negropontes.
An ex MS at the helm will be the end of Linux on XO.
And an end to educational value of the OLPC, I might add.
Winter
MS sucks big time, IMHO - if it comes to XO, it'll be death of basic OLPC plot.
If it will happen, then I hope that will rise another low-cost educational laptop with Linux to make world better place (and not only for billionaires).
It should be really interesting to see who is going to be the new CEO. Olpc has gotten some fabulous people in its other positions, so I expect the new CEO will be pretty darn good, too. It is a plum post, because olpc has such amazing potential and has an enormous amount of publicity and support from major players like Quanta, Google and Red Hat. And these board members can give NN some real help in recruiting and deciding who to pick.
Wayan - thanks for letting people know about the great interview we had.
I have a another follow up for you here - It is easy to say Poole is not your first choice? It is much harder to say who is. So whom do you think has the ideal appeal, chops, and would stick with it?
Are you looking for a Whitman? An internet CEO or a Jack Welch - successful leading a large corporate group. Does it need to be a "name" or could it be....wait...I have an idea.
More to come....
My first choice was Carly Fiorina - she lead HP into emerging markets long before OLPC even existed. HP's e-Inclusion initiative was groundbreaking in its scope and efforts like the HP 411, years before we even had "bottom of the pyramid" as a phrase. Oh, and she hosted the first BoP conference too.
But alas, she is a star fundraiser for McCain now, which for me disappoints and suggests she's committed to politics till at least November.