CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
This 13-year Microsoft veteran is in charge of the company's main software products -- including operating systems, desktop productivity applications, and databases. Before joining Microsoft, the soft-spoken South Africa native worked for five years at Intel Corp.

EXPECTED TO TESTIFY:
That Microsoft planned early on to integrate Internet technologies into its Windows 95 operating system -- and not as a way of fencing off a threat to its operating system monopoly. He'll also argue that there's plenty of competition in the operating system business, so Microsoft can't behave like a monopoly and raise prices or stop innovating.

But Maritz may find himself on the hot seat during cross-examination. He has been quoted as saying Microsoft planned on "cutting off Netscape's air supply." And the government has entered into evidence a June 1, 1995, memo from him to Chairman Bill Gates in which Maritz describes one of the company's goals for a key June 21 meeting with browser rival Netscape Communications Corp. The plan was to "move Netscape out of the Win32 client area" -- that's Microsoft jargon for Windows 95. So the note bolsters the government's contention that Microsoft at that meeting offered to divide the browser market, keeping browsers for Windows 95 for itself.