Ed Guilbert. Sometimes called the “Father of Electronic Data Interchange,” the early form of business-to-business e-commerce that preceded the Web, Guilbert played a key role as head of the Transportation Data Coordinating Committee in helping create EDI standards that went into wide use by the late 70s and were required in supplier communications by many companies, including Wal-Mart, in the early 80s. To rally businesses to the EDI cause, Guilbert used to wander through his business audience tossing out dollar bills, shouting, “This is about money!” Deceased, 1993.

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Jim Manzi. Chair, president and CEO of Lotus Development Corp. from 1984-1995, until it was acquired by IBM in a hostile takeover bid — that was fought by Manzi — for $3.5 billion. Lotus was founded in 1982 by Mitch Kapor (who helped found advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990) and Jonathan Sachs. Its early flagship product, Lotus 1-2-3, a combined spreadsheet, graphics and database package gained wide adoption in the early years of the PC. But in its networked product, Lotus Notes groupware, Lotus set a new pace again. Lotus, which prized its independent culture, grew attractive as a takeover target and IBM went on to snag it. Manzi left. He’s now chairman of the board at ThermoFisher Scientific, as well as head of Stonegate capital, an investment firm he founded mainly to invest in startups.

Craig McCaw. The four McCaw brothers, as they were often called, were wheeler-dealers in wireless, buying up available cellular licenses, then MCI’s cellular division in 1986, then selling McCaw Cellular to AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1994. Though they’d become billionaires, Craig McCaw, along with his brothers, didn’t stop there. With Craig taking the lead, in 1995 they gained control of Nextel, which merged with Sprint in 2005. Craig went on to other ventures, founding Nextlink, merging with Concentric Network, which was renamed XO Communications. But that went bankrupt in 2002. In August 2003, McCaw founded Clearwire, a wireless broadband service provider. But on Dec. 31, 2011, he cut his ties with the firm he founded, whose majority owner is Sprint Nextel, by stepping down from his role as chairman of the board. Clearwire has been raising funds to help keep building out its wireless broadband network. It’s quiet so far about what Craig McCaw will do next, but his Eagle River Holdings still holds a 4% stake in the company.

Barry Schrager. The “big iron” mainframe has been the workhorse of computing, since its early form in the 1960’s. The pioneer in mainframe security, Barry Schrager, came along in the 1970’s to invent the first mainframe secure-access software while assistant director at the University of Illinois computer center. With colleagues at the company he founded, SKK, he was designer and primary author of the ACF2 mainframe security system in 1978. Later sold, ACF2 is still on the market, marketed by CA. Schrager still keeps going in mainframe security as chief security architect at Vanguard Integrity Professionals.