Brisbane, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/3/2006 -- CollabNet, the leading provider of on-demand distributed software development solutions, today announced that Brian Behlendorf, founder and CTO of CollabNet, has been named a Young Global Leader. He is one of only 41 people in North America chosen by the Forum of Young Global Leaders to join this powerful international community tasked with making a positive impact on the global future. In addition to being designated a Young Global Leader, Behlendorf has been invited to participate at the 2006 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on January 27 in Davos, Switzerland.
Young Global Leaders are visionaries under the age of 40 that commit to working together on what is known as the 2020 Initiative, an endeavor to understand current and future trends, risks and opportunities both at global and regional levels. They are focused on formulating a positive vision for the world in 2020 and putting forward concrete strategies to translate their vision into action.
Each year, the Forum of Young Global Leaders, an affiliate of the World Economic Forum, selects approximately 200 individuals for a five year membership, ultimately forming a community of 1,111 by 2009. Drawn from every region in the world and from various disciplines, the Forum of Young Global Leaders volunteer their time and provide insight and ideas for how to make positive changes in the global society. Members include the co-founders of Google and Yahoo!, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, activists, media leaders and personalities from academia and cultural life, as well as U.S. senators and international presidents.
"CollabNet exists today because Brian had a vision for global collaboration and engineered his vision into reality by creating an online distributed software development platform that is now used by more than 700,000 people around the world," said Bill Portelli, president and CEO of CollabNet. "This company is just one example of Brian's progressive thinking in the area of globally connecting people on the Internet to drive community and innovation and helps make him a true Young Global Leader. All of us at CollabNet are extremely proud of all he has achieved thus far and look forward to his continued positive impact not only at CollabNet but on our global future."
Behlendorf will participate in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The panel, entitled "Moving Up the Technology Value Chain," will explore the impact that Open Source methods of production will have on the software economy as well as the broader economy. Panelists will discuss the drivers of successful technology innovation, where new models for technology development are emerging and why, and implications for business strategies. Keith Krach, co-founder of Ariba and a member of the CollabNet Board of Directors was a previous participant in this software track at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.
Behlendorf founded CollabNet with O'Reilly & Associates in July 1999. Before launching CollabNet, Behlendorf was co-founder and CTO of Organic Online, a Web design and engineering consultancy located in San Francisco. During his five years at Organic, Behlendorf helped create Internet strategies for dozens of Fortune 500 companies. During that time, he co-founded and contributed heavily to the Apache Web Server Project, co-founded and supported the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) effort, and assisted several IETF working groups, particularly the HTTP standardization effort. Before starting Organic, Behlendorf was the first chief engineer at Wired Magazine and later HotWired, one of the first large-scale publishing Web sites. Behlendorf is currently a director of the Mozilla Foundation and a retired director and president of the Apache Software Foundation.
For more information and a detailed list of all Young Global Leaders, please visit www.younggloballeaders.org.