Eric Hahn '80 is the subject of a feature article in the October 2007 issue of IEEE Spectrum, the magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Titled "The Codemaker," the article chronicles Hahn's extraordinary career as a programmer, entrepreneur, corporate executive, and philanthropist
WORCESTER, Mass. -- Eric Hahn, a member of Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) Class of 1980, is the subject of a feature article in the October 2007 issue of IEEE Spectrum, the magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Titled "The Codemaker," the article chronicles Hahn's extraordinary career as a programmer, entrepreneur, corporate executive, and philanthropist.
Hahn was an early graduate of WPI's Computer Science Department. After graduation, he worked at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, where he was a key developer of ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. He went on to serve as vice president and general manager of the Convergent Technologies division that produced PC and UNIX servers and software, and then vice president of engineering and later general manager of cc:Mail, which was acquired by Lotus Development Corp.
In 1993 he founded Collabra Software Inc., one of about a dozen companies he has started. Its flagship product, Collabra Share, won numerous awards before the company was sold in 1995 to Netscape, where he became executive vice president and chief technology officer. After leaving Netscape, he established Inventures Group, an investment company that encourages and supports start-up technology companies.
WPI has honored Hahn with its Robert H. Goddard Alumni Award for Professional Achievement and, in 1999, with an honorary doctorate in engineering; Hahn was the Commencement speaker that year. Earlier this year, WPI announced that Hahn had given the university $100,000 to help fund a new approach to WPI's first-year experience. Hahn's grant will begin the transformation of the first-year experience for students at WPI as it enables the university to offer the "Great Problems Seminars."
Read the IEEE Spectrum story and learn about the "Freeze and Thaw" program he wrote at WPI that made him a hero among fellow students.
Read the citation for Hahn's 1999 WPI honorary degree.
