Meet United States’s 101 Top Directors in the Cyber Security Space

Bill Schrader

Board of Director of Threatcare

William (Bill) L. Schrader An internet pioneer and co-founder (with Martin L. Schoffstall) of the world’s first commercial Internet Service Provider, PSINet, in 1989. They initially funded the company using credit cards and by selling his family car. In May 1991, the company acquired NYSERNet, the corporation that had created the first regional Internet network under his leadership, an acquisition that gave PSINet commercial access to what would come to be known as the Internet. The company met with early success, capitalizing on the growing potential of the growing global network, an expansion in which the company played an active role. In 1991, PSINet, UUNET (AlterNet) and General Atomics (CERFnet) co-founded the Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX), a trade association of Internet Service Providers. By 1995, the company had revenues of $32.9 million. Pressured by increasing competition in the dial-up internet market, the company restructured in 1996 to focus on its commercial Internet business, selling its retail ISP accounts to MindSpring in June of that year, and began its expansion into Europe. Co-founder Schoffstall left the company that year. As a leader in the ISP arena, PSINet was frequently mentioned in trade publications for its accomplishments and reputation, some of it not flattering. In 1997, the company raised $1 billion in bond capital and undertook a series of rapid acquisitions, making 76 acquisitions between January 1998 and December 2000. Regional ISPs were a frequent purchase, and according to Congressional testimony which he gave, the company was, by 1999, the largest independent facilities-based ISP in the United States, the second largest ISP in Japan, and had more than 500 points of presence around the world. The company’s largest acquisition came in March 2000 with the purchase for more than $1.3 billion in stock of Houston-based Metamor Worldwide, a consulting services conglomerate it purchased in an effort to become a “single-source provider” for IT outsourcing services. The company also invested heavily in its fiber-optic network, anticipating strong demand, and planned in early 2000 to invest $1.4 billion over three years to build to expand its services and operations. Despite its rapid growth and significant position in the commercial Internet services market, the company was never profitable. A management team of inexperienced, young people was replaced by a more seasoned team of professional managers from companies like MCI, but its acquisition spree was too overwhelming for them to manage, in addition to the executives with a voice based telecom background (circuit-switched) did not completely understand the nuances of a packet switched network. It was a popular stock with analysts during most of the dot-com boom because of its rapid revenue growth and aggressive expansion plans, but by 2000, PSINet was beginning to struggle. The company lost more than $5 billion in 2000 despite having close to doubled annual revenues to $995 million. Some analysts point to the Metamor acquisition as the turning point for the company, burdening it with the demands of integrating business operations while it was already struggling with significant debt from its earlier acquisitions, and facing a general slowdown in the computer services industry. However, the company had missed earnings estimates the year before, and was said to be looking to sell parts of its operation in late 1999. A portion of it was spun out into the independent company, Inter.net (the Canadian subsidiary of which is now part of Uniserve); and another portion, ShellTown, was sold to Saugus.net. A wave of senior officers, including the company’s president, chief operating officer, and an executive vice president departed the company in early 2001, and he left his CEO job on April 30. In the internal email sent to staff announcing his departure he likened the company’s situation to a building in a lightning storm and, referring to his decision to resign as CEO, said “I am that lightning rod”. The company’s stock price plunged in response to the departures and to wider-than expected losses: the stock, which had traded as high as $60.94 a share in 2000 (after a split), closed at 18 cents in late March 2001. In May 2001, the company was delisted from NASDAQ because the company’s stock had traded below one dollar for 30 consecutive days. The company delayed filing its quarterly 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Finally, overwhelmed by debts in excess of $3.7 billion and with dwindling cash reserves, the company announced on June 1, 2001, that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection along with 24 of its US subsidiaries, and that four of its Canadian subsidiaries had filed for protection under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). Most of the PSINet United States’s assets were acquired by Cogent Communications in April 2002. PSINet Canada was acquired by TELUS Communications. PSINet Europe was acquired by Interoute. In 2012, he was named Chief Executive Officer of LeaseWeb where he was chartered with building on the company’s brisk growth to further expand the customer base and oversee the rollout of new products and services in the massive US market. In addition to his role at PSINet, he has previously held CEO positions at Neutral Net, a fiber-to-the-home-company and provider of Smart Grid services; and at Synchris, a project collaboration and content management software tool. He also held an advisory role at AIS Network, the managed cloud and applications hosting provider. LeaseWeb entered the North American market in 2011, with the opening of an office and datacenter near Washington, DC in Northern Virginia. Since then the company has experienced rapid take-up of its highly reliable hosting solutions, gaining customers across several industries including online gaming, streaming video and advertising networks. He announced, “We are at a tipping point in hosting and networking, as a plethora of companies strive to adapt their practices and incorporate cloud-based elements as an integral part of their core business. With a highly knowledgeable and dedicated team, LeaseWeb USA is the first provider in the market to offer quality global hosting solutions at an extremely competitive price point.” The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the OCOM Group, one of Europe’s largest Internet infrastructure and hosting companies.

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