In an industry where 30-year-old executives are technology veterans, Hancock has spent more than 30 years shaping the way we get our computer information through networking hardware and software. And with her executive stints at IBM, National Semiconductor, Apple and now Exodus, you won't find a more varied résumé in the valley. She's seen the top from all sides -- from the corporate culture of Big Blue to Apple's let-it-be atmosphere.

Exodus, which Hancock joined in 1998 shortly before its IPO, is her first foray into Internet start-up insanity. So far, it's working for her. As an outsourcing provider for Internet systems, network management and development services, Exodus boasts such high-profile, high-traffic clients as Yahoo, Lycos, Hotmail and Geocities. Under Hancock's tutelage, Exodus has grown from 300 customers to over 1,300, has tripled its employee count and is expected by analysts to double its revenue in 2000.

As more big companies like Sun, HP, Fujitsu and Gateway see network outsourcing as the way to go for their fat sites, it could happen. Hancock, who once said her ideal-sized company has 15,000 employees, revels in the company's growth and accepts the growing pains as a welcome challenge. Hancock talked with Salon Technology about corporate growth and her other challenges -- Y2K, being female in Silicon Valley and finding spare time in a crowded CEO schedule.

Exodus is the ultimate behind-the-scenes player in high tech, providing the back end to all of these exciting front ends. Do you and Exodus prefer that role to a more glamorous profile like, say, a Yahoo or Amazon?

We are in that space called infrastructure, which doesn't sound like as much fun as Lycos or eBay. But as the Internet grows, people have really come to acknowledge the role of infrastructure. I think that definitely shows in the performance of the company, and the performance of the stock. I believe that where we are positioned now, we have leverage. We can work with other companies, including more high-profile ones, and have influence in the industry. It's definitely a different environment than Lycos or Amazon, but it's fun. At IBM, the networking division was also fun, but different.

And Apple was really different from that, I would imagine.

Actually, Apple and Exodus are much closer in attitude. Because of size, and because of type of culture, IBM was much more disciplined. At Exodus, we really took a lot from Apple. We have a lot of ex-Apple employees. We're used to the Apple style. While Apple was a reasonably large company, it still had a free-flowing style and we try to put that to work here.

You started at IBM out of graduate school and stayed there for 29 years. If you had to start your high-tech career over again today, what would you do?

I would go to IBM again. I learned a lot there. It's an excellent company, and very supportive of women in management. They gave me a lot of assistance. But today I would have come out to Silicon Valley earlier. I'm not unhappy with how it turned out, but those of us who joined companies in the '60s and '70s thought of our jobs in terms of lifetime employment. Today people are making more moves, and to some extent I think it's healthy to make those moves.

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