High Five: Bill Karpovich, CEO of ZenossHigh Five: Bill Karpovich, CEO of Zenoss

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TYPE A
Karpovich studied engineering at Duke University, where he also played varsity soccer. He went to work for Accenture (then Andersen Consulting), then joined the ill-fated USinternetworking, one of the first ISPs. "We didn't sleep much or do much except think about how to deploy Internet solutions for companies."

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DEEP THINKER
Karpovich burned out, so he took a yearlong sabbatical. "I read 50 books on philosophy, religion, and psychology." He traveled in the Far East and discovered meditation. He also studied brain science as a volunteer graduate student at Johns Hopkins.

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LESSON LEARNED
"There is no inherent meaning in our lives--and that's a positive thing. It's your choice, the meaning is up to you. The only meaning is the one you create."

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BASEMENT TAPES
The Zenoss technology came from a former colleague at USi, who wrote it "in his boxer shorts in his basement." Karpovich saw a way to apply his entrepreneurial skills and the lessons he'd learned on his sabbatical. "Open source is a new way of people working together. It's not win-lose, it's about partnering together."

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CHILL OUT
Zenoss has an office that serves as a meditation room; Karpovich himself uses it twice a day. It fits with the company's unofficial motto: "IT managers: Here it is, your moment of Zen."