Many have encountered people of this type.  They are full of energy and ideas, and cannot settle for the status quo. As soon as they implement an idea, they jump into another idea.  So, their lives become one creative idea after the other, continuously providing value to the world. The IT world is full of these types of people who are usually the drivers of innovation.

One of these leaders is Niklas Zennström, the chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Skype, an Internet telecommunication solution provider with over a hundred million registered users. Although the company has been recently acquired by eBay, Zennström is still at the top at Skype, in addition to serving on eBay’s executive committee. 

Even among innovation leaders, Zennströrm’s achievements to date are impressive, to say the least.  He was a co-founder of Kazaa, a leading a consumer file-sharing solution provider that took centre stage after Napster got into legal problems and was closed down.  In 2003, Kazaa was the most downloaded Internet software. 

While tracing his beginnings, you will find that Zennström’s parents are teachers, which seems to  fit an intellectual like him.  It is also interesting to know that  the Swedish national, born in the mid-1960s, has dual degrees in business and engineering/ computer science from Upsala University in Sweden.  He also spent the last academic year at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, one of the most prestigious American schools. 

Upon graduation, he joined Tele2.  At the time, the company was a small, twenty-some-employee organization. Zennström helped expand the business and succeeded to make Tele2 a leading telecom operator in Europe.  At Tele2, two encounters shaped his life.  One was meeting his future partner, Janus Friis, who was hired by Zennström to join Tele2. The other was meeting his French wife. After Tele2, Zennström co-founded Altnet, a leading secure P2P network and later founded Joltid, a company that develops peer-to-peer (P2P) solutions and provide traffic optimization technologies. 

Many of the things he worked on were in partnership with Janus Friis.  Together, they launched Kazaa as well as Skype.  While Friis mainly handled the software development aspects, Zennström focused on the business and the managerial aspects of the organization. 

The two young partners are still far from being  done with their new innovations.  Today, they are working together to create Joost, a new P2P video distribution service.  Their work as partners was recognized through many joint awards like the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award, awarded to those who change society and industries through IT innovation. 

Zennström received many other honors and awards for his achievements as an entrepreneur and telecomm innovation leader. He was listed by Time Magazine as one of the one hundred most influential people of 2006.  He is also one of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum.

According to people who interviewed him, he is “an intense and articulate speaker with a lot to say,” as one interviewer puts it.   Money does not seem to be the key driver for this entrepreneur, but what keeps him going seems to be more of a passion for technology and innovation. He is extremely dedicated to his business, with a leadership style that focuses on organizing and communicating. 

On the personal side of things, Zennström is married and has no children.  His hobbies include skiing and other outdoor activities.

Sunday, February 25, 2007