The Grainger College of Engineering

Mark A. Tebbe

Mark A. Tebbe
Mark A. Tebbe
To Mark A. Tebbe for technologial prowess and leadership in the computer industry and as a corporate executive.

Chairman and Founder, Lante Corporation, Chicago, Illinois

  • BS, 1983, Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Mark A. Tebbe's inquisitiveness, talent, and energy, combined with his ability to recognize and seize opportunity in emerging technologies, keeps his company at the leading edge of the technology economy. Tebbe left Arthur Andersen to start Lante in 1984 with money borrowed from his credit card and a passion for microcomputers and networking. In the beginning, Lante was focused on PC networks, but the business evolved to client server application and more recently to Internet systems integration and e-commerce. Lante has grown from a two-person operation in Chicago to a major public company with offices in 10 cities and more than 300 employees, many of whom are University of Illinois graduates.

Tebbe, who built his first personal computer in 1974 when he was 13 years old, is a nationally recognized authority on emerging technologies and is often in the public spotlight. He has been interviewed for television and such publications as Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, PCWeek, and the Wall Street Journal. In addition, he has written columns and articles for numerous publications, including the weekly "Behing the Lines" column for InfoWorld. In 1999, Tebbe was named to the "40 under 40" list in Crain's Chicago Business. The following year he was inducted into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurial hall. He is a founding member of two leading computer groups in Chicago, is active in many technological organizations and standards committees, and serves on several nonprofit organizations and started the American Hyperlexia Association. 

Tebbe has returned to campus often and has been especially supportive of the Association for Computing Machinery and Engineering Open House projects. In 1999, he joined the College of Engineering Advisory Board and delivered a talk as part of the Distinguished Entrepreneur Series sponsored by the Department of Computer Science.

Current as of 2001.