Eric Engstrom's earliest ambition was interplanetary travel. His head full of "Star Trek" and "Lost In Space" episodes and the real-life marvel of Neil Armstrong's moonwalk, 10-year-old Engstrom decided that he would be the first human on Mars. But the self-described "dumpy little kid" knew NASA wouldn't take him, so he took matters into his own hands and started building a computer to control his spaceship.

That early engineering effort led to career that spanned the outer limits of the computing industry. At Microsoft, Engstrom was one of the notorious "Beastie Boys" immortalized in the book Renegades of the Empire who invented the groundbreaking DirectX game technology for Windows. He went on to triple MSN's Internet subscriber base and start two companies.

Decades after he watched the moon landing in an astronaut's costume, however, Engstrom's dream isn't dead. In an interview for "Information Technology Leaders," he says that money is only important to him as a means for funding a future blast-off. He also explains that among the factors favoring India for his software outsourcing company was its proximity to the Equator: "It would be the best place to launch a rocket for Mars or other parts unknown."

"Information Technology Leaders," produced by the University of Washington’s School of Business, presents multi-faceted portraits of the people filling the top IT positions at major corporations such as Microsoft, Boeing, and AT&T Wireless Services. The revealing interviews show that personal characteristics often play an important role in the unpredictable career trajectories of this industry.

Engstrom grew up in Orville, a town in eastern Washington state, where his tiny, unaccredited high school didn't even have indoor plumbing. At his first job in his parents' store, he hawked cowboy hats, boots, and saddles.

Though he was brilliant in math and science, he never graduated from college at Washington State University. In four years he took exactly three classes and majored in drinking. As a teen, he had taught himself to write software, and that's how he supported himself from then on.

At 23, Engstrom ventured west over the Cascade Mountains to interview at Microsoft. Dressed in his "country bumpkin" best short-sleeved plaid shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes, he landed a 30-day contract to answer e-mail in a computer language he quickly learned for the job. Then he turned down a full-time offer there in favor of a programming position at Data I/O with a slightly larger salary. Microsoft's package included stock options, which he interpreted as "something they do to people in plaid shirts to confuse them about cash." That was only the first time he lost $10 million, he cheerfully reports.

After a few years at Data I/O and an 18-month stint at Zortech, Engstrom felt the pull of Microsoft and this time didn't resist. He began his eight-year tenure there as an evangelist, convincing companies to use Microsoft platforms. Next he worked in the interactive TV department before hooking up with the other "renegades," Craig Eisler and Alex St. John, to create software development kits for games.

Engstrom's personality was well-suited to Microsoft's culture of conflict, which he defines as "a debate society where winning is worth millions." As program manager, a role with great responsibility but no authority, he relied on a strong argumentative style and plenty of energy to keep everyone on schedule. He also discovered that he excelled at working on products that didn't interest him personally--he could stay objective, focused on solving the problem.

DirectX was a good example. Engstrom didn't care for computer games, but the technology he created with Eisler and St. John made high-performance games available on the Windows platform for the first time. DirectX was phenomenally successful, shooting Microsoft's share of the computer gaming market from 4 percent to 90 percent in 18 months.

The trio's next project, Chromeffects, attempted to be "a browser on steroids." To do that, they had to take on rival Apple. The project put Engstom on a roller coaster while Chrome, considered revolutionary by some, also became labeled a "Netscape killer." Eventually, it also propelled him into the thick of the government's antitrust case against Microsoft.

Engstrom, who was chosen among 12 others to take the stand for Microsoft, scored the company's only win in an otherwise devastating case. Initially terrified, Engstom swiftly found his footing against the contentious government prosecutor. "I thought, 'Oh, I know this place. You are just a crowd of people, and that lawyer is just a nagging customer who doesn't quite understand how the technology works,'" he recalls.

By then, Engstrom knew his time at Microsoft was over, but he stayed on through the trial, working on MSN Internet Access. The company had grown too big, and he wanted to try something new. So he did--three days after leaving Microsoft, he was on a plane to India, to start Catalytic Software. The company leveraged the brightest Indian developers to outsource software design.

Wildseed has given Engstrom new purpose--and a new identity that somewhat obscures his notoriety. Describing his pride at being recognized for Wildseed's innovation rather than his notoriety, he concludes, "Getting a clean slate at 35 is a great deal."

Engstrom's extraordinary career may enable him to write his own ticket--but only on Earth. The seasoned CEO admits, in all seriousness, that he still hopes to launch that ship to Mars someday.

Produced By: Christopher Redner

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