MediaMente: Charles Wang

Charles Wang

Interview

"Computer Associates for user-friendly solutions" (Milan, 20/11/1997)

Biography

Born in Shanghai 54 years ago Charles Wang, known as "the guru of the digital planet" and the "computer wizard", is the MD and CEO of Computer Associates, one of America’s leading software companies. Although little know by the general public, CA has been producing essential business software for banks. airlines, manufacturing and government for over 20 years.

After graduating in mathematics from Queens College in 1967, Wang became interested in computing at a time when the market was dominated by the great mainframes of IBM. After completing a course in programming, he began to work in the Electronic Laboratories of Columbia University where he met, his friend, and later business associate, Russ Artz. Some time later both joined Standard Data, where he says: "we did everything, wrote the programmes, sold them...".

Towards the end of the ‘70s he received a proposal from a Swiss company to exploit a new programme, Sort, which reclassified the data contained in mainframes. Wang set up on his own and bought the company which produced Sort: Computer Associates.

In 20 years CA’s turnover has gone from zero to the $5.7 billion forecast for '98. He has published two manuals Techno Vision: the executive survival guide to understanding and managing information technology (McGraw-Hill 1994), and Techno Vision II (McGraw-Hill 1997). However, Wang claims that he has not become completely Westernised and has recently published a Chinese cookbook, entitled Wok like a man.