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However, it wasn't only the accomplishments cited above that got Clark onto our roster. We chose him because he played a consistently aggressive role in leading the data-networking industry throughout the past decade.

In 1982, at a time when the computing community was just beginning to realize the graphical potential of computers, Clark and seven others founded Silicon Graphics (SGI). While most single-user computer systems were barely able to confine text to a window, SGI--with Clark serving as chairman in the early '90s--built workstations capable of stunning 3-D graphics. SGI's workstations found applications ranging from scientific visualization to TV weather graphics. The company also produced some of the best workstation-networking technology, taking a strong leadership role in the network-heavy Unix community in key areas, such as clustering and distributed computing. (It's no coincidence that many of Netscape's high-load servers were SGI systems.)

While at Netscape, Clark promoted the vision of Web browsers and servers as an applications platform, essentially driving the development of high-end application servers, catalog servers, directory servers and more. Netscape also taught the industry a trick now widely accepted: The partial product release was mastered, if not born, there. Beta versions of Navigator and Communicator were offered free to the public, cementing the Internet community's interest in and support of those products.

But Clark recognized that serious applications and the ability to run them on a browser was the real magic. In suggesting that Web servers could efficiently host and run line-of-business applications--essentially wiping out the terminal emulation and client/server industries in one fell swoop--he persuaded the industry that the Web was more than text and graphics, and that it could be useful for a variety of business purposes, whether for modernizing legacy applications or for acting as a platform upon which entirely new businesses could be built.

In the latter half of the '90s, Clark continued to lead the industry by founding Healtheon--now called Healtheon/WebMD--and myCFO, two of the earliest "vertical portals" on the Web, long before most people had even grasped the concepts behind such ventures. As is typical of Clark's endeavors, the missions of these entities are grand: Healtheon/WebMD seeks to connect consumers and physicians to the "entire healthcare industry," while myCFO aims to help the affluent manage their finances.

As for Clark's role in the future of the Internet, we can only assume he will continue at its forefront. After four successful ventures on computing's leading edge, he's proven he's more than capable of leading the industry into uncharted waters and emerging on top.