Paul Maritz

Paul Maritz
Paul Maritz in 2009
Born	1955

Paul Maritz (born 1954) was CEO of VMware Corporation (NYSE:VMW) from July 8, 2008 until September 1, 2012, and a past senior executive at Microsoft. He was succeeded as CEO by Pat Gelsinger.

He was born and raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). His family later moved to South Africa where he was schooled at Highbury Preparatory School and Hilton College.^{[citation needed]} He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Natal, and a B.Sc. (Hons) degree, also in Computer Science, from the University of Cape Town in 1977.^{[citation needed]}

Career

After finishing his graduate studies, Maritz had a programming job with Burroughs and later became a researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, before moving to Silicon Valley in 1981 to join Intel.

He worked for Intel for five years, including developing early tools to help developers write software for the then-new x86 platform, before joining Microsoft in 1986.

From 1986 to 2000 he worked at Microsoft, leaving as executive vice president of the Platforms Strategy and Developer Group and part of the 5-person executive management team. He was often said to be the third-ranking executive, behind Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He was responsible for essentially all of Microsoft's desktop and server software, including such major initiatives as the development of Windows 95, Windows NT, and Internet Explorer. While at Microsoft, Maritz was credited for originating the term "eating your own dogfood" also known as Dogfooding.

He then founded, and was CEO of Pi Corporation, a company backed by Warburg Pincus. When this was acquired by EMC in February 2008, Maritz briefly became President and General Manager of EMC Corporation's cloud computing division, before being appointed CEO of VMware (a public company majority-owned by EMC), on July 8, 2008 - replacing co-founder and CEO Diane Greene.

He was an angel investor in Apture. He sponsors third-world development projects and is the chairman of the board of the Grameen Foundation.

Maritz was the recipient of the 2011 Morgan Stanley Leadership Award for Global Commerce, “which recognizes individuals whose personal leadership has made a critical contribution to the effective use of information technology throughout the world.”

Paul Maritz is the Business Journal's 2011 Executive of the Year.

External links

• "Microsoft's Star Witness: Paul Maritz". New York Times. 25 January 1999. 
• "Microsoft Loses Another Key Executive". CNET. 14 September 2000. 
• "Grameen Foundation USA Advisory Councils". Archived from the original on 3 May 2007. Retrieved 19 May 2007. 
• "Pi Corporation". Retrieved 24 April 2006. 
• "Forbes article on Pi Corporation". Retrieved 24 June 2006. 
• "EMC Acquisition of Pi Corporation Press Release". Retrieved 21 February 2008. 
• Bryant, Adam (2 October 2010). "Corner Office NYTimes Interview". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 December 2010. 
• "Number One Most Influential Executive Of 2010". Retrieved 23 December 2010.