Ellen Mooney Hancock (April 15, 1943 – April 19, 2022) was a
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
manager from the United States who worked for IBM and Apple, among others.
Early life and education
Hancock was born April 15, 1943 in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and raised in New York's
Westchester County
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
. She graduated from the
College of New Rochelle
The College of New Rochelle (CNR) was a private Catholic college with its main campus in New Rochelle, New York, but also in Australia, England, and Germany. It was founded as the College of St. Angela by Mother Irene Gill, OSU of the Ursuline ...
and earned a master's degree in mathematics from
Fordham University
Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...
.
Career
IBM
Hancock spent 29 years at
IBM, where she rose to senior vice president in charge of network hardware and software. She ran the networking hardware division through the first half of the 1990s, at a time when it saw double-digit losses in market share year after year. (The division was ultimately sold to Cisco in 1999.) She was also a member of the IBM Corporate Executive Committee and the IBM Worldwide Management Council.
National Semiconductor
In September 1995, she was hired away from IBM by
Gil Amelio
Gilbert Frank Amelio (born March 1, 1943) is an American technology executive. Amelio worked at Bell Labs, Fairchild Semiconductor, and the semiconductor division of Rockwell International, and was also the CEO of National Semiconductor and Ap ...
to become
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drive ...
's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). She worked closely with Amelio to move National Semiconductor to profitability. During that time, Hancock worked with National's
CompactRISC architecture, which was a forerunner to the successful ARM7 architecture.
Apple
Not long after that Amelio left to take the CEO position at
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
, and in July 1996 he hired her to join him there.
At Apple, she took over the Chief Technology Officer role in the midst of the floundering next-generation
Copland operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
(OS) project.
[
] She was largely responsible for the decision to cancel Copland.
To replace it, Hancock had favored
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...
's
Solaris
Solaris may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film
* ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem
** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg
** ''Solaris'' (1972 film), directed by ...
operating system over
NeXT
Next may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare
* ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage
* '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film
Lit ...
Inc.'s
NeXTSTEP
NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprieta ...
, and was against the eventual purchase of NeXT.
Even after the deal was done, she wanted to use at least the kernel of Solaris.
With NeXT came
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
, who publicly lampooned her on several occasions calling her a "bozo".
[
] When the Apple board of directors fired Amelio, Jobs reorganized the company leaving her with a much reduced role in charge of
quality assurance
Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...
as former NeXT executives took over many positions in Apple. She soon resigned.
Exodus Communications
After Apple she took a CEO position with
Exodus Communications
Exodus Communications, the world's largest web hosting provider at the time, was a data center provider that provided retail and commercial server colocation and was an Internet service provider to dot-com businesses. Exodus went public in 1998 ...
in March 1998 and became chairman of the board in 2000. Exodus set a Nasdaq record of 19 consecutive quarters of 40 percent quarter-over-quarter revenue growth. In 2000, the $29 billion market cap exceeded even that of her former employer, Apple Computer. However, in 2001 the company became part of the
dot-com crash
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...
, the stock plummeted and Hancock stepped down as CEO in September 2001. The company filed for bankruptcy that same month, followed by an asset purchase by Cable & Wireless in February 2002. Savvis Communications purchased the related assets from C&W in November 2004.
Acquicor
Hancock served as President,
COO
COO or coo may refer to:
Business
* Certificate of origin, used in international trade
* Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official
* Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process
...
, and secretary to the board of
Acquicor
Jazz Semiconductor is a semiconductor wafer foundry that is a wholly-owned United States subsidiary of Israel-based Tower Semiconductor. Its customers include developers of wireless, optical networking, power management, storage, and aerospace/de ...
, a company she co-founded with former Apple-CEO
Gil Amelio
Gilbert Frank Amelio (born March 1, 1943) is an American technology executive. Amelio worked at Bell Labs, Fairchild Semiconductor, and the semiconductor division of Rockwell International, and was also the CEO of National Semiconductor and Ap ...
and Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak
Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve Jobs, he c ...
. The company was a 'blank check' holding company, or "
SPAC". Acquicor acquired
Jazz Semiconductor
Jazz Semiconductor is a semiconductor wafer foundry that is a wholly-owned United States subsidiary of Israel-based Tower Semiconductor. Its customers include developers of wireless, optical networking, power management, storage, and aerospace/de ...
in February 2007 and Hancock resigned on June 7, 2007.
Memberships
Hancock was a member on the boards of several companies and academic and nonprofit institutions, including
Aetna
Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...
,
Colgate-Palmolive
Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...
,
Electronic Data Systems
Electronic all cash BSN acc: 1311729000110205 Data Systems (EDS) was an American multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a subs ...
,
Ripcord Networks
Ripcord Networks was a voice and video cryptographic security company. Their headquarters was in San Mateo, California in the United States.
Ripcord Networks was founded in 2003. Board members included Steve Wozniak, Apple Computer's co-founder ...
,
Marist College
Marist College is a private university in Poughkeepsie, New York. Founded in 1905, Marist was formed by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic religious institute, to prepare brothers for their vocations as educators. In 2003, it became a secular in ...
,
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...
, and the
Pacific Council on International Policy
The Pacific Council on International Policy is an independent, non-partisan, membership-based organization dedicated to global engagement. Founded in 1995 in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations and the University of Southern Califo ...
.
Death
Ellen Hancock died April 19, 2022.
In Memoriam: IACS Trustee Ellen Hancock
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hancock, Ellen
1943 births
2022 deaths
Apple Inc. executives
Colgate-Palmolive
IBM employees
Marist College people
Women chief technology officers
American technology chief executives
American women chief executives
American chief technology officers
American chief operating officers
21st-century American women
People from the Bronx