Sunday, August 1, 1999
There are entrepreneurs who create a vision, and there are entrepreneurs who follow a vision, executing it to perfection. This combination is often the formula for success for growing, pioneering companies. Jim Clark, Pavan Nigam, and the company they founded called Healtheon are one such example. Healtheon represents one of the most crucial consolidations of Internet technologies and IT infrastructure. The effects of this are being felt across the healthcare industry by patients, doctors, hospitals and service providers.
The Clark-Nigam relationship began in the mid-1990s. Silicon Graphics, a pioneer in high-end graphics computers and the first of the three companies founded by Clark that have since gone public, was betting heavily at that time on Interactive Television (ITV). This project was Clark’s baby, and Nigam was managing it, resulting in a close interaction. Clark, of course, soon moved on to form Netscape, which veritably kicked off the Internet revolution. In 1995, when Clark came up with the idea of marrying the $1.2 trillion healthcare industry to the emerging Internet infrastructure, he looked to Nigam to partner with him in the venture.
Nigam has been a consistent over-achiever — just out of IIT Kanpur, members of his family, who owned and operated a radio shop, were pushing him in different directions. To satisfy all schools of thought, he managed to gain admission into the Indian Administrative Service and well as the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. But Nigam did an about-face by going to Wisconsin, MI to pursue an advanced degree in computer science. Since then he has carved out a successful high-tech career, joining Intel in 1982 before moving on to SGI. And as Healtheon’s CTO and SVP of strategic development, Pavan Nigam has proved to be a highly effective leader. We look forward to watching him and Healtheon continue to flourish in years to come.
