Fortune magazine in its 2007 list of “America’s Most Admired Companies” has named Network Appliance Inc. No. 1 in the computer peripherals industry.

NetApp was co-founded by David Hitz, who earned his B.S.E. in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton in 1986 and currently serves as the California-based company’s executive vice president. In this position, he is responsible for the future strategy and direction of the company, which provides data storage solutions through specialized hardware, software and services.

Daniel Warmenhoven, who earned his B.S.E. in electrical engineering at Princeton in 1972, is NetApp’s chief executive officer. He led the company’s initial public offering in 1995 and under his leadership the company has grown to become a multi-billion dollar corporation.

The Fortune rankings are determined by executives, directors and analysts who are invited to evaluate companies on eight criteria, including quality of management, financial soundness, social responsibility, and quality of products and services. More details appeared in the March 19 issue of Fortune.