SUNIL MANDATHAN

Sunil Mandathan, 35, Delhi-born Director of Retail Information Systems. 

Has been with Perigee since its founding – originally hired by Gary Nakamura to head-up IT for SolarFlare.com, and still close to him (they play golf together every weekend, and sometimes on Thursdays, too), although his role has faded in the last couple of years as Perigee signed a tech support contract with an off-shore company, ironically in Hyderabad, India.  Sunil was moved over to the Retail Division and has done a good job of keeping the POS systems in the stores running smoothly.  His motivation is a bit lacking because he made some good early money with Mark and Gary on the website.  Sunil manages a team of three, and he has been trying to cross-train them.  But it's been tough. Each one has a highly specialized role: one programmer, who is the expert on the Point Of Sale (POS) system in the stores; one systems support specialist; and one network administrator. Sunil's team hsa been complaining about the cross-training program, and because they belong to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IBEW Local 396, which is active on the plant floor at Perigee, this worries management. At all costs, they want to avoid a further expansion of unions into the Retail Division, since that would virtually eliminate all flexibility in contracts and compensation.

• Salary: $100,000