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Back in college, Mark Pine's boss at a small electronics engineering firm put in his hand a magazine photo of the first microprocessor chip and declared it would change the world. It did, and Pine's life, too.
Nearly 25 years later, Pine, 45, is the president and CEO of OnDisplay Inc., one of the leading providers of e-business software and services. After a 1996 start up, this San Ramon company's 1998 sales reached $10 million and are projected to hit up to $20 million in 1999. Recently OnDisplay went public to raise $46 million in venture capital and carve out a healthy share of the potential $10 billion e-commerce software market.
Pine's leadership role came after an 18-month hiatus from the hyper-charged high-tech world that emerged from the tiny chip his boss showed him on the cover of Datamation Magazine. The exhausting career ride left Pine burned out by age 40. He quit Sybase, where he was a senior vice president, and headed for a Colusa County ranch to raise cattle, grow rice and hang out with his three kids.
"I didn't know if I was going to get back into the business and do...