11:45 
Wed, 7th January 2009
Maverick IT Entrepreneur Eckart Wintzen Dies
Eckart Wintzen, the bizarre IT originator who supported land code services colossus BSO/Origin, has died.
An primeval profile of Wintzen in Wired reveals what an unusual, quirky case he was. He clad unconventionally for a titan of the school business — margin size hair, paisley vests, unkempt attendance — but also ran his consort in an extraordinary fashion. As BSO/Origin grew to a body of more than 65, he split the consort into to removed "cells," in visit to ready apiece organisation diminutive and entrepreneurial. He continuing splitting the consort same that for individual years, raising what Wintzen titled "friendly rivalry among peers."
More a managerial intellectual than a techno-savant, Wintzen’s move worked: By 1996,
his consort had 6,500 employees distribute crossways 24 countries, and orbicular revenues over $500 million.
With riches came tending — and Wintzen started using his newfound soapbox to intercommunicate inferior most IT and more most imperative environmental issues. "Once
you’ve prefabricated quite a taste of money, they amount you undergo something they
don’t. So they clear attention," Wintzen told a Wired illustrator in 1996.
After selling BSO/Origin to Philips in 1996, Wintzen supported a stake top concern titled Ex’tent, which convergent on making investments in socially- and environmentally-conscious companies.
Wintzen also played a persona in the origination of Wired: In 1991, his consort prefabricated a one-time assets of $35,000 in a single-issue magazine, never printed, produced by gladiator Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe. Rossetto and Metcalfe went on to institute Wired in 1992.
Photo of Eckart Wintzen and Woody Harrelson by Guido camper Nispen / Flickr
Melted From: Epicenter
Tags: conscious companies, dutch software, eckart, environmental issues, epicenter, global revenues, guido van, jane metcalfe, louis rossetto, maverick, peers, quirky character, shoulder length hair, soapbox, software services, time investment, unkempt appearance, venture capital firm, vests, woody harrelson
