L. (Bill) William Krause

General Manager of the HP General Systems Division responsible for the HP 250 small business computers, Krause spent 14 years at Hewlett-Packard Company from 1967 to 1981 in various marketing and general management assignments. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from The Citadel in 1963 and received an honorary Doctorate of Science in 2000. In August of 1980, HP's General Systems Division (GSD) split into three divisions: Computer Systems Division (CSY), responsible for the HP 3000 hardware and operating system; and HP's first software division, Information Systems Division (ISD).

Krause was the General Manager for the third division, which retained the name of the General Systems Division. It had responsibility for the HP 250 small business computers, which had been developed at the Fort Collins Division. By the end of 1980, HP had installed over 5,000 HP 3000 computer systems, and by the middle of 1981, HP had shipped its 6,000th HP 3000 system.

Krause went on to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer of 3Com Corporation from February 1981 to September 1990, and as Chairman of the Board from September 1987 to September 1993, when he retired. Under his leadership, 3Com grew from a venture capital funded start-up to a $1B+ publicly traded, data networking company with operations worldwide. Krause then became President of LWK Ventures, a management consulting firm, from 1991 onward.

Krause has also served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Exodus Communications, Inc., from September 2001 until February 2002, where he guided Exodus through Chapter 11 bankruptcy to a sale of assets. Krause also served as Chairman of the Board of Caspian Networks, Inc., an IP networking systems provider, from April 2002 to September 2006, and as CEO from April 2002 until June 2004. He has served as a director of the following public companies: Coherent, Inc., CoreMark Holding, Inc., Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., and Sybase, Inc.