Mike Timbers.

• Position: Brief Article

Four years ago, Michael J. Timbers logged on the Internet for the first time. Today he heads a company that is comfortably becoming a leading Internet enterprise; he relies on the Internet daily; and he can't imagine a world without the World Wide Web.

Timbers is chairman and CEO of IHS Group - Information Handling Services Group, Inc. - located on a sprawling 55-acre campus in the Inverness Business Park. With a worldwide workforce of 3,200, including 1,600 in Colorado, IHS is Douglas County's largest private employer.

IHS Group and its 25 companies have become leaders in providing Internet information services to the engineering, energy and professional sectors, including most Fortune 100 companies.

"Our business has changed so much and continues to change," said Timbers who joined IHS in 1981 when what were then called databases were delivered on microfiche.

In 1987, the company produced its first CD-ROM database, and has since evolved into an Internet business that today derives 60% of its more than $400 million in annual sales from Internet products.

"We are really moving in the direction of becoming even more Internet-based with our products. Our goal is to be 80% Internet," said Timbers, explaining that CD-ROM and hard copy will still be available in countries less internet savvy.

Timbers said IHS has a two-pronged growth strategy that includes adding information sources to serve such vertical markets as automotive, aviation, petro-chemical and manufacturing. Secondly, IHS intends to expand into small- and...