Mike Long is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
businessman, former CEO of several
public companies
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (list ...
. He served as the president and
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of Continuum, an
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, Texas IT
consulting company
A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional services, professional service business, firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; t ...
, from 1991 to 1997. In 1997, Long was named CEO of Healtheon Corporation (now
WebMD
WebMD is an American corporation known primarily as an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being. The site includes information pertaining to drugs. It is one of the top healthcare websites.
It was foun ...
), succeeding former CEO David Schnell. Long oversaw Healtheon's initial
public offering
A public offering is the offering of securities of a company or a similar corporation to the public. Generally, the securities are to be listed on a stock exchange. In most jurisdictions, a public offering requires the issuing company to publish a ...
.
[Lewis, Michael. The New New Thing A Silicon Valley Story. Boston: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.] In 2002, Long was recruited to fix the financial struggles of
Move, Inc.
Continuum (1983-1997)
Long first gained executive experience at Continuum, a "producer of packaged
back-office software Retail back-office software is used to manage business operations that are not related to direct sales efforts and interfaces that are not seen by consumers. Typically, the business processes managed with back-office software include some combinatio ...
for insurance companies."
["How the Directors Brought a Dot-Com Back From the Brink," ''Corporate Board Member Magazine'', January/February 2007.] He first served as a director, then moved on to become CEO. In order to gain a foothold in the American insurance market, Long focused Continuum on foreign markets.
WebMD (1997-2001)
After leaving Continuum, Long served for four years as the CEO of WebMD. Long sought to bring to fruition the "dream" of WebMD serving as a network that would link "patients, hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and pharmacies that would help manage people's health care throughout their lives."
[ Long envisioned cutting $300 billion in waste from the ]healthcare industry
The healthcare industry (also called the medical industry or health economy) is an aggregation and integration of sectors within the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, a ...
, but what Long "saw as waste others saw as income."[ WebMD would meet a lot of resistance from the health care industry, never able to fulfil the vision Long had set out for it. WebMD exists now as an easily accessible encyclopedia of health-related information.][
]
Homestore.com > Move, Inc. (2002-2008)
After his time at WebMD, Long envisioned spending more time with his family. In late 2001 Long was approached with an offer of heading up Homestore.com, a company that had been dealing with accounting difficulties and had seen its stock price tumble.restructuring
Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons ...
Homestore, Long would bring with him executives from WebMD and Continuum to serve as chief financial officer
The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...
and chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...
. With morale at Homestore sinking and other companies luring away top talent, Long acted swiftly to halt the losses. On his first day as CEO, Long spoke before 700 Homestore employees in the parking lot outside the company's California headquarters. He spoke candidly about the difficulties the company had endured, and those that were to come. He asked the employees to work with him to reinvigorate the company. Long began his restructuring of Homestore by shedding some of its acquisitions and renegotiating contracts with AOL
AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017â ...
and Cendant
Cendant Corporation was an American provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, it broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses. Although it was based in New Yo ...
. With the flexibility of the renegotiated contract terms, Long was able to assemble a group of investors that would steer the company toward profitability, instead of bankruptcy. With Homestore on track, Long decided a re-branding was necessary as the name "Homestore.com" had become "associated with fraud and a plummeting stock." Re-branded as Move, Inc., the company would continue to gain more investors and increase its valuation from $19 million to $787 million.[
]
Sulgrave Partners LLC (2009 to present)
In late March 2009, along with Taylor Griffin and Jack Dennison, Long launched Sulgrave Partners LLC, a business advisory–consulting firm
A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad range ...
headquartered in Washington, D.C
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
.information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
business that develops and markets tools and technology supportive of more accountable, patient-centered healthcare.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Mike
American technology chief executives
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)