Popularly known as the 'Father of Netscape'.

As a student Andreesen worked part-time at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. The World Wide Web was just beginning to take off.

In 1993 Andreesen, with fellow NCSA employee Eric Bina, developed a Web browser that was more sophisticated, easier to use and graphically richer than any of its predecessors. They called it Mosaic. It became enormously popular, and by attracting more users and content producers spurred the exponential growth of the Web.

After graduation, Andreesen moved to California. In mid-1994 he launched Mosaic Communications Corp. The company developed a new Web browser - Netscape.

Mosaic Netscape was posted for download on the Internet in October 1994. Its rise was meteoric. By 1996, 75 percent of Web users used Netscape.

Despite its early success, Netscape was soon displaced by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. In 1999 it was sold to America Online.

Marc Andreesen is now chairman of Opsware Inc., a leading provider of data centre automation software based in California.