Rowland Hanson

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "Rowland Hanson" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. (October 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

This article contains promotional content. Please help improve it by removing promotional language and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic text written from a neutral point of view. (November 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

(Learn how and when to remove this message)

Rowland Hanson, (born 1952) is the current Chairman of CRH & Associates, and the CEO of the HMC Company. He is known for his work in Microsoft,[1] where he convinced the company to name their new graphical user interface (GUI) "Windows" over the original proposal, "Interface Manager."[2][3]

## Education

[edit]

Hanson received a BBA from Loyola Marymount University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated on the Directors List of Distinction.[4]

## Work history

[edit]

Hanson served as the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for the Neutrogena Corporation, acquired by Johnson & Johnson for a “significant premium.”[5] Johnson & Johnson’s acquisition of Neutrogena – which was largely for the brand’s strength[6] – caught the attention of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, who convinced Hanson to join them in over branding efforts of what eventually became known as Windows.

Hanson served as a branding consultant for companies like Monsanto, IBM and Nautilus, which created BowFlex.[7]

Hanson now serves as the GM of Strategic Partnering for the Microsoft Alumni Foundation[8] – the complementary organization to the Gates Foundation, which focuses on enhancing global healthcare and reducing extreme poverty, and in the U.S., to expand education and access to information technology.

## Related pages

[edit]

* History of Microsoft Windows
* Windows 9x
* Delrina

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Rowland Hanson bio at Microsoft". Retrieved 25 May 2014.
2. ^ Manes, Stephen; Andrews, Paul (1994). Gates : how Microsoft's mogul reinvented an industry and made himself the richest man in America (1. Touchstone ed.). New York u.a.: Touchstone. pp. 238–240. ISBN 978-0671880743.
3. ^ Erickson, James Wallace; Jim (1993). Hard drive : Bill Gates and the making of the Microsoft empire (1. ed.). New York: HarperBusiness. pp. 242–245. ISBN 978-0887306297.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. ^ "Hanson Maslen Group". Thehmccompany.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-19. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
5. ^ "Chairman / Founder: C. Rowland Hanson". CRH & Associates. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
6. ^ "Johnson To Acquire Neutrogena - New York Times". The New York Times. 1994-08-23. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
7. ^ "Hanson Maslen Group". Thehmccompany.com. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2014-01-14.
8. ^ "Volunteers". Microsoftalumni.org. Retrieved 2014-01-14.