Facebook: Who will be Mark Zuckerberg's Eric Schmidt?

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, is just 26 and has done very well but his young age does often show itself in various ways. He's put his foot in his mouth a few times over privacy, and has had mixed reviews on his performance in high profile interviews.

Does he need "adult supervision?" Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page were at about that same age when Google's investors, John Doerr and Michael Moritz decided that they needed adult supervision. Eric Schmidt was brought in as co-CEO in 2001.

Every day brings Facebook closer to its eventual IPO. Its top investors might be wondering if Mr Zuckerberg needs someone to be his Eric Schmidt and show new investors that there is an experienced, steady hand on the tiller should it be needed. Mr Schmidt did a great job in preparing Google for a stellar IPO.

And adult supervision isn't such a bad thing, Messrs Brin and Page still have theirs and they are now 36 years old.

Who would make a good Eric Schmidt to Mark Zuckerberg? How about Scott McNealy the former CEO of Sun Microsystems?

I saw him recently at Verisign's celebration of 25 years of making boat loads of money from its dotcom registry services, in San Francisco's city hall. He's out of work following the Oracle acquisition so he has the time. He seemed a bit bored and listless but a new challenge might perk him up.

Mr McNealy isn't the most tactful person and he never outgrew his fratboy sensibilities -- he'd probably get along really well with Mr Zuckerberg.

He could become the lightning rod for Facebook in a similar way Mr Schmidt is for Google. And he knows how to run a very large publicly traded company. They would be a great match, imho.

PS: Eric Schmidt is ex-Sun.