I joined VMware in 2012 because I loved the technology so much. I first discovered VMware Workstation in 2002 and I was instantly impressed and knew it was something that was going to change everything. When I joined, our CEO was Paul Maritz. While I admit I was worried that the cool VMware days with Diane Green were over, I grew to admire Paul as a leader. Paul was a technologist and ambitious to grow the company and disrupt even more markets. It turned out to be a fun time to be at VMware. My fear that the startup days were over was quickly extinguished. I learned a ton and it was very rewarding because we were pioneering things that no one else was doing.
Then in 2013 Paul moved on to Pivitol and here enters Pat Gelsinger. I honestly didn’t know what to make of Pat. He was sort of quiet and very technical in the few times I saw him present. Having come from EMC again we thought the good times were over. Fast forward 2 years and we are streamlined and laser focused on our core competencies. Virtualization, Networking and End user computing. The reasons I joined VMware in the first place. Then at my first CTOA conference I remember Pat coming in and saying by this time next year the stock will be up. I was thinking to myself, “What? does he have a crystal ball or something?” then, just as he predicted, it did. For me, and I believe everyone at VMware, he suddenly had instant credibility. Pat grew our company, strengthened our culture and instilled our EPIC2 values into everything we do.
Not gonna lie, Pat’s departure to intel this week was a bit of a shock given everything else going on in the world. With that said I am still optimistic. Internally our strategy, commitment to our customers, and our passion for innovation has not changed. Also I learned today that Pat will remain on the board of directors for VMware. I have always said VMware’s story is never completely written. I look forward to our next chapter and growing and learning from our next CEO and the fun ahead. We still have a lot of really tough problems to solve and some pretty awesome new technology I am playing with right now that I can’t wait to share with you all. Stay tuned….