Background
James Barksdale was born in Jackson, Mississippi.
James Barksdale was born in Jackson, Mississippi.
University of Mississippi.
He received a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Mississippi in 1965. Barksdale was called before Congress several times during hearings about Microsoft and its alleged abuse of its operating system monopoly to dominate the web browser market (see also: Browser wars). At one point he addressed the entire room: "How many of you use Intel-based PCs in this audience, not Macintoshes?" Most people in the room raised their hands.
"Of that group who use PCs? How many of you use a Personal Computer without Microsoft"s operating system?".
All of the hands went down. He said to the Senate panel, "Gentlemen, that is a monopoly".
Before Netscape, Barksdale had worked as Chief Executive Officer of McCaw Cellular/American Telephone & Telegraph Company Wireless and, before that, as Vice President and chief operating officer of Federal Express . After departing Netscape, he founded The Barksdale Group, an investment and advisory group created for the purpose of helping Internet service companies.
He also sits on the Board of Directors of several companies including Time Warner, Federal Express , and Sun Microsystems.
President George West. Bush appointed him to the President"s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Barksdale served on the board of myCFO. Between March and July 2009, construction crews working for Barksdale"s Spread Networks completed a nearly straight fiber-optic link between Chicago and New York City. By shaving 3 milliseconds off the previously fastest connection between these two trading centers, Barksdale, according to some industry insiders, can charge 8 to 10 times the going rate because any algorithmic trading algorithm not operating on his network is at a significant speed disadvantage.
The line was built almost entirely with his personal funds and in secret lest a competitor attempt to build another line before he was able to finish lieutenant
In January 2000, they gave United States$100 million to the State of Mississippi to create The Barksdale Reading Institute, a joint venture with the Mississippi Department of Education and the state"s public universities.
While there, Barksdale became a member of the Eta Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.