U. Bertram Ellis Jr.

What's in the water in Charlottesville?

In his opening remarks Nov. 12 at the e-summit@virginia's first session, "Forecasting the Future: Jeffersonian Principles in the Internet Age," U.Va. President John T. Casteen III explained how the conference, which brought together leaders in the Internet industry who are also alumni, came to be.

To set goals through the year 2020, four commissions have been established in the areas of public service and outreach, the fine and performing arts, international activities, and science and technology. In addition, "We're asking younger alumni what they think" the University's focus should be in the next two decades, Casteen said. Their reports, along with the work of the commissions, will serve as the "blueprints in how to elevate U.Va.'s in these areas."

U. Bertram Ellis Jr., chair and chief executive officer of iXL Enterprises and part of the Virginia 2020 alumni group, suggested Internet leaders would be helpful in this planning, and thus the e-summit was conceived.

An item in the column, "Loose Change," appeared in the April 1999 issue of Fortune magazine, one of the e-summit sponsors. It read: "Hey, who needs Stanford? Check out this list of University of Virginia grads who are big-time Internet players: Timothy Koogle, CEO of Yahoo! (or is that Wahoo?); Halsey Minor, CEO of CNET; ... Bertram Ellis, CEO of iXL; Š and Allison Abraham, COO of iVillage. Unbelievable, huh? And that's just a partial list. So what's in the water down in Charlottesville?"

As the water is analyzed at U.Va. today and tomorrow, "I hope these discussions will help guide us in our future," Casteen said.