I would like to quote what Michael Copeland says in the latest issue of Fortune.
It takes more than leading-edge technology and a Stanford MBA to make it big in high tech. Apparently it takes whiskers.
It’s weird, but true, there are so many Silicon Valley CEOs sporting beards these days. The magazine has even organized a contest: The Silicon Valley Beard-off!. It combed the Silicon Valley and put together eight unshaven execs and invited a panel of three distinguished judges to choose the best beard of the Silicon Valley!
The contenders’ big names are:
- Steve Wozniak, Acquicor Tech
- Steve Jobs, Apple
- Edwin Catmull, Pixar
- Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia
- Russel Simmons, Yelp
- Larry Ellison, Oracle
- Zach Nelson, NetSuite
- Stewart Butterfield, Flickr
From the bunch, I believe you and I are most familiar with Steve Jobs, because we love Apple’s products so much… and we hear about him almost everyday! And I do think he sports the best beard and I was glad he was shortlisted in the last four.
However… who would have guessed Stewart Butterfield, Director of Product Management of Flickr would emerge as the eventual winner! – “His beard is trimmed nicely, edgy, yet mature, so he doesn’t look 18 sitting in front of investors. Now that’s a snapshot!”, said one of the judge, John Allan.