Diane B. Greene is a technology entrepreneur and executive from the United States born on June 9th, 1995.
Greene began her career as a naval architect before moving on to the technology industry, where she was the founder and CEO of VMware from 1998 to 2008.
From 2015 to 2019, she was a Google board director and the CEO of Google Cloud. She was also the co-founder and CEO of two startups, Bebop and VXtreme, which were acquired for $380 million and $75 million, respectively, by Google and Microsoft.
Diane Greene’s Life and Education
Greene received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont in 1976 and a master’s degree in Naval Architecture from MIT in 1978. She was born in Annapolis, Maryland to an engineer and a teacher.
She earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987, where she met her future husband and VMware co-founder, Mendel Rosenblum.
Diane Greene’s Career
Greene won the national women’s dinghy championship in 1976 at the age of 19 and the first Windsurfing World Championship at the age of 19. Greene began her career as a naval architect, designing ocean-going vessels and offshore structures. She was also in charge of engineering for Windsurfing International.
Diane worked as an engineer and manager at Sybase, Tandem Computers, and Silicon Graphics after receiving her second master’s degree in computer science. She also co-founded and served as CEO of VXtreme, which was purchased by Microsoft and served as the foundation for Microsoft’s movie player.
VMware
VMware was founded in 1998 by Greene, Mendel Rosenblum, Scott Devine, Edward Wang, and Edouard Bugnion. With Greene as CEO, VMware pioneered x86 virtualization and created the market for mainstream virtualization.
They first used the technology on the desktop to run multiple operating systems concurrently without having to reboot. They then implemented server virtualization to simplify system management, increase server utilization, and save power. Virtualization is now the most common way to run servers.
Greene remained CEO after VMware was acquired by EMC Corporation for $635 million in 2004. VMware operated as a subsidiary, keeping its name, brand, and products while achieving a $2 billion run rate.
In 2007, VMware went public at a $19.1 billion valuation, making it the largest tech IPO of 2007. On July 8, 2008, Greene was fired as president and CEO by the VMware board of directors and replaced by Paul Maritz, a retired 14-year Microsoft veteran who was running VMware parent company EMC’s cloud computing business.
Greene remained CEO after VMware was acquired by EMC Corporation for $635 million in 2004. VMware operated as a subsidiary, keeping its name, brand, and products while achieving a $2 billion run rate.
In 2007, VMware went public at a $19.1 billion valuation, making it the largest tech IPO of 2007. On July 8, 2008, Greene was fired as president and CEO by the VMware board of directors and replaced by Paul Maritz, a retired 14-year Microsoft veteran who was running VMware parent company EMC’s cloud computing business.
Greene was appointed to Google’s board of directors on January 12, 2012. Greene took the tenth seat on Google’s board of directors, which had previously been held by Arthur D. Levinson in October 2009.
Greene was named CEO of Google Cloud in November 2015, following the acquisition of her startup, Bebop. Greene established Google’s first enterprise-capable business unit as CEO of Google Cloud.
A few months after she stepped down as CEO of Google Cloud in January 2019, the company’s cloud unit reported $8 billion in annualized revenue. Former Oracle executive Thomas Kurian succeeded Greene as CEO of Google Cloud. She remained on Alphabet’s board of directors.
Board of Memberships
Greene previously served on the boards of Alphabet, Intuit, Khan Academy, and SAP, and she is currently on the boards of Stripe, A.P. Moller – Maersk, and Wix.com.
She is also on the board of MIT and serves on the advisory board of the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Engineering.
