Kenan Systems: Becoming a $Billion Software Company and Managing Its Future

The MIT Club of Puget Sound http://alumweb.mit.edu/clubs/pugetsound/ and the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest are jointly sponsoring the MIT Enterprise Forum Satellite Broadcast "Becoming a $Billion Software Company and Managing Its Future" on Thursday, October 5, 2000 at 4:00 p.m. The broadcast is being hosted by Safeco at the Safeco Plaza Building at the corner of NE 45th Street and Brooklyn Avenue in the University District. This broadcast will provide an opportunity to hear from Dr. Kenan Sahin '63 -- founder and leader of Kenan Systems -- one of the nation's most successful entrepreneurs.Dr. Kenan Sahin managed his company through intensive growth stages from startup, through development phases, to an anchoring position as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lucent Technologies, and on to significant evolution inside Lucent. In short, he guided his company from his single investment of a thousand dollars to its acquisition value of $1.48 billion in March of 1999. Sahin's presentation will review industry trends and "entrepreneurial lessons learned" from his unique business experience. Moderator for the broadcast will be MIT President Emeritus and former Chairman of the Corporation Howard Johnson. The program will include an introduction by the moderator, the keynote presentation, an interactive discussion with attendees and satellite-downlinked participants.. If you would like to attend the broadcast, here are the specifics:

Date: Thursday, October 5, 2000

Time: Arrive 3:45 p.m.

Where: Safeco Plaza Building at the corner of NE 45th Street and Brooklyn Avenue in the University District (4333 Brooklyn Avenue N.E.)

RSVP: We need to have a list of attendees prior to the event. There is no cost for this, but we need to have all the names prior to the event. Register via the website http://alumweb.mit.edu/clubs/pugetsound/events.html#oct05--satellitebroadcastProgram ModeratorHoward Johnson was president of MIT in the 1960s and early 1970s and is the author of Holding the Center, about which the Boston Globe said "Executives everywhere will learn a thing or two about conflict management. . .. As a professor and administrator at MIT, a corporate director, and an advisor to American government agencies and to museums and foundations, Johnson consistently sought both to understand and to apply the principles of good management.Kenan SahinDr. Kenan Sahin is a group president of Lucent Technologies' Software Products, and vice president of Software Technology for Bell Labs. Lucent's Software Products Group develops and delivers software and services to address the requirements of leading service providers in the communications and utility services industries worldwide, in areas including billing, customer care, order management, decision-support, usage mediation, network management, and operational support. Prior to founding Kenan Systems in 1982, Sahin taught on the faculties of MIT, Harvard Univeristy, and the University of Massachusetts. Throughout his academic career, he has been recognized for signficant achievements in scholarship and teaching. His extensive research has resulted in numerous patents and publications on the technology and practice of management. In the fall of 1999, he donated $100 million to MIT for unrestricted use and named the former MIT presidents Paul Gray and Howard Johnson, current president Charles Vest, and chairman of the MIT Corporation Alex d'Arbeloff as a council committee to designate the gift to best advance the educational and research goals of MIT. In 1963, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from MIT. He continued his graduate studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he received fellowships from Sloan and the Ford Foundation, completing his Ph.D. in 1969. His doctoral work and subsequent research led to worldwide patents in areas relating to computer communication networks and massively parallel computation. Satellite Broadcast SeriesThis will be the eleventh in the MIT Enterprise Forum Satellite Broadcast Series to feature workd-class MIT-related speakers and panelists. In addition to the October 5, 2000 event, broadcasts are planned during the academic year on January 18, 2001 and Wednesday, June 6, 2001. Earlier broadcasts have featured Virtually Live with Timothy Berners-Lee and John Landry, Internet Futures with Robert Metcalfe and Michael Dertouzos, High-Tech Enterprises with Edward Roberts and Dennis Costello, Breakthrough Technology with Robert Langer and Lita Nelsen, Entrepreneurship with Alex Metcalfe, The Soft Side of NEw Enterprise with Ray Stata and Paul Brountas, and the two panel discussion programs, What Private Equity Investors Are Looking For moderated by John