Very sad news: Garry Betty, the president and CEO of EarthLink, has died due to complications from cancer. He was only 49 and had been with the company since 1996, which is a remarkably long run in the fast-forward world of technology.
Betty had been in the tech business even longer than that--he started his career at IBM, and was at DCA and Hayes, a couple of once-important companies which communications old-timers like me will remember.
Back in 1996, EarthLink was just one of a zillion companies aiming to be giants in the ISP business. (Remember Netcom? PSI? Prodigy after it dumped its proprietary service?) Nearly all of them either never amounted to much in the first place or couldn't compete as the Web exploded. But EarthLink grew, sometimes by acquiring its rivals (such as MindSpring, which was my ISP back in the day).
Today, a very few, very large companies dominate Internet access--behemoths like Comcast, AT&T, and Time Warner. But EarthLink is still in the game--despite court rulings that make it tough to be an independent broadband ISP--and it continues to reinvent itself with new efforts such as municipal Wi-Fi and cell phone service.
In other words, Garry Betty was both a trailblazer and an old pro. (Here's a tribute blog with more information on the man and his career.) My thoughts are with his family and colleagues at this difficult time.
I worked at EarthLink for almost seven years. As director of PR, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Garry on a fairly regular basis. He had a vision for how to keep the company afloat in the face of increasing numbers of naysayers and more formidable competition, reinventing it to suit conditions. But more than that, he was a good man. You could just sense the warmth of his spirit the first time you shook his hand. He greeted janitors and Board members with the equal enthusiasm. He was genuinely interested in how you were doing. The world is a poorer place for Garry's absense. Rest in peace.