Tim Howes
Tim Howes is a software engineer, entrepreneur and author. He is the co-creator of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, the Internet standard for accessing directory servers. He co-founded enterprise software company Opsware, web browser company Rockmelt, and children's education company, Know Yourself. He has co-authored two books, several Internet RFCs, and holds several patents. He co-founded and currently serves as CTO for Palona AI: building High EQ, fully customizable AI Agents for businesses that learn about each individual customer and adapt to their needs.
Education and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
Howes was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, a Master of Science in Computer Science and Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, all from the University of Michigan.While at the University of Michigan, Howes was tasked with creating a campus-wide directory service using the X.500 standard. X.500 directories list network resources to make finding them and using them easier for network administrators and users. Unfortunately, accessing X.500 records has required a full-blown X.500 server; there was no such thing as an X.500 client. This led Howes to co-create DIXIE, a directory client for X.500 directories. This work formed the basis of his Ph.D. dissertation and was the foundation for LDAP, a standards-based version of DIXIE for both clients and servers. The first publicly available version of LDAP was published in 1993.
Career
Netscape
In 1996, after joining Netscape as directory server architect, Howes was named one of the Top 25 Network Technology Drivers by Network Computing magazine. In 1997, LDAP version 3 won PC Magazine's Technical Excellence: Networking award. Howes was also named a Netscape Fellow, Netscape's highest engineering honor, and was promoted to chief technology officer of Netscape's Server Products Division.Loudcloud and Opsware
In 1999, shortly after AOL acquired Netscape, Howes left AOL to co-found Loudcloud with Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and In Sik Rhee. Howes ran the engineering department and spearheaded the creation of Opsware, the company's data center automation software to speed-build sites.He was recognized by InfoWorld in 2000 as one of the top 10 e-business innovators.
In 2002, Loudcloud shifted businesses and was renamed Opsware. At Loudcloud & Opsware, Howes held the positions of Executive Vice President and CTO. In 2005, Howes was named a "Top 25 CTO's of 2005" by InfoWorld magazine.
In 2007 Opsware was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $1.65 billion, and Howes became vice president and CTO of HP Software.
Rockmelt
In October 2008, Howes left Hewlett-Packard to co-found RockMelt with Eric Vishria.In August 2013, Rockmelt was acquired by Yahoo, and Howes joined Yahoo! as Vice President of Engineering for Yahoo's Mobile and Emerging Products Group. He left the company in December, 2014.