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Web
Exclusives:Features
By Rob MacKay '89 Technology has always come easy to Mark Bailey '81. As chairman and CEO of WebPartner, a high-tech firm that enables businesses to use the Internet more effectively, he makes sure it comes easy to others. "Basically, we help people manage their Web sites and other on-line channels such as affiliate sites," says Bailey, who majored in electrical engineering and computer science. "Web sites are getting more mainstream, and people are trying to do more with E-business. Thus, the sites are getting more complex, and the opportunity to fail or get in trouble has increased. That's where we come in. We help find, fix, and prevent problems to keep the sites performing." Founded in 1998, but going full-throttle since October 1999, WebPartner was ranked by UPSIDE magazine as a "HOT 100" company in the business-to-business E-commerce category for the year 2000. The Silicon Valley-based startup's client list already includes Sharper Image, SunTrust, and Met Life, and it has created the trademarked service programs Affiliate Advantage, SecretShoper Advantage, and WebPartner. Now Bailey, who speaks with a boundless enthusiasm while freely peppering his diction with computing terminology, is poised to make the $14-million company expand exponentially. "With the growth in the industry, this is a very exciting time to be in this business," says Bailey, who grew up in Sparta, New Jersey, and now lives in Los Altos, California. "We're seeing more and more [computer] operations in the mainstream, and all large corporations are embracing the Internet now - not just the dot-coms. They need to have a strong E-business presence and interact with their customers. An off-line presence is not enough." Beyond being a proponent of it, Bailey is keenly interested in Internet technology, and time is on his side. In the near future, he is looking forward to a truly global economy, where the cost of doing transactions and sharing information with individuals on the other side of the planet is reduced to nothing. "We're making the world a closer space and allowing work to get done more quickly," he says. "Everything is moving at light speed, and it's going to be fun to watch all the changes in the coming years." If you surf to www.webpartner.com, make sure you notice Bailey's Tiger touch - all text information on the site appears in orange or black. Rob MacKay, is an editor at Timesnewsweekly, a weekly newspaper in Queens, New York. He can be reached at robertazo@hotmail.com.
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February
21, 2001: