Mr. Helfrich was a member of the founding team at Copper Mountain Networks, a maker of equipment for high-speed Internet connections, and his résumé includes turns at the 3Com Corporation and Ascend Communications, two other computer networking equipment makers.
Southwest is negotiating similar deals with two other computer reservation systems, WorldSpan, owned by Delta, Northwest and American, and Galileo, which was just bought by the Cendant Corporation, parent of Avis and Days Inn.
He is joining Apple's board, along with his friend Larry Ellison, the boss of Oracle, the second-largest software firm, and two other computer luminaries.Mr Ellison has considered buying Apple in the past, to focus it on making network computers, a technology he is championing to rival the PC.
After taking a job at Digital Equipment out of college and then going on to two other computer startups, Severino understood the potential of this new networking technology.
The officials said three other computers were suspected of containing classified information.
An office across the hallway from the whistleblower's lawyers that was left unlocked and was full of valuables, as well as fourteen other computers, was untouched by the thieves.
The Times declined to change the formula it uses for its ratings and both it and the Dunkel Index were dropped, while the six other computer services were retained.
