Ben Rosen: The Lion In Winter

Normally, life for Benjamin M. Rosen is like a cake coated with an especially thick layer of frosting. From his lair on the 43rd floor of a glitzy tower in midtown Manhattan, the 66-year-old computer-industry legend looks out on a stunning view of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. He's surrounded by the fine things he has collected--a Picasso drawing on his dining-room wall, a Botero bronze sculpture by the window, and a 130-bottle collection of single-malt Scotch lined up on the breakfront. This is a portrait of a man in the winter of his life savoring his hard-won riches.

The phone rings. He jumps up, then checks himself. "I won't worry about that. It isn't the important line," he says. He sits down, but the spell is broken, and reality sets in. Rosen's lush life is on hold, and now the visionary financier who backed the likes of Compaq and Lotus, is toiling perhaps harder than ever before. This is no time to stop and smell the single-malt Scotch. As chairman of Compaq Computer Corp., he presided over the Apr. 17 firing of Chief Executive Officer Eckhard Pfeiffer and then stepped in as acting CEO.