Ray Noorda
CEO, Novell

Ray Noorda rescued Novell back in 1982, when he joined the company and helped turn it into the dominant player in the network operating system market. He retired in 1995 to oversee The Canopy Group, which invests in companies such as Caldera, Intl., Lineo and Linux Networx, all of which offer Linux products designed to give companies a choice beyond Windows.