George Conrades was named chairman and chief executive officer of Akamai in April 1999, bringing a broad range of business experience in the computing, Internet, telecommunications, and media industries. Mr. Conrades became Executive Chairman of Akamai in April 2005 and was succeeded as CEO by Paul Sagan, Akamai's president.
Before joining Akamai, Mr. Conrades was executive vice president and president of GTE Internetworking following the firm's acquisition of BBN Corporation in 1997. From 1994 until GTE's acquisition of BBN, Mr. Conrades served as CEO of BBN, where he built the company into one of the industry's top-tier ISPs. Prior to BBN, Mr. Conrades was an IBM senior vice president and member of IBM's Corporate Management Board. Mr. Conrades serves on the Board of Directors for Harley-Davidson, Cardinal Health and BBN Technologies. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Scripps Research Institute and Ohio Wesleyan University. Mr. Conrades is also a member of MIT's Corporation Visiting Committee for The Engineering Systems Division and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, Mr. Conrades serves as a venture partner at Polaris Venture Partners, an early stage investment company.
Mr. Conrades is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University with majors in physics and mathematics. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
