Co-Founder and CEO, VMware – 1998 – 2008 | CEO of Google Cloud – 2015-2019
Having created the market for mainstream virtualisation, co-founded three successful tech firms (VMware, Bebop and Vxtreme) and helped build Google Cloud to $8bn in revenues, it’s a puzzler why Diane Greene isn’t even higher in this countdown.
In a reflection of her engineering and leadership prowess, as well as her status as a trailblazer for women in tech (see below), four of the 60 channel leaders we approached put Greene in their top five.
She left Google Cloud in 2019 to focus on her passion for mentoring and education, including investing in and helping female founder CEOs who have engineering and science backgrounds.
Leadership style
A profile piece written by Network World back in 2006 characterised Greene as “unassuming and humble”, noting that she “hates talking about herself”. Our panellists were impressed with her advocacy for diversity and inclusion in tech.
Low points
After leading VMware from zero to nearly $2bn in annual revenues, Greene was fired by the virtualisation vendor in 2008 amid slowing sales growth.
Killer quote
“I want to encourage every woman engineer and scientist to think in terms of building their own company someday. The world will be a better place with more female founder CEOs.” (taken from Google Cloud resignation letter)
What our panellists said about Greene
Michelle Cope, Sales Director, Trustco
“[I nominated] Diane Greene because of the profound impact she has had in technology from engineering to leadership. Her both technical and commercial understanding steered VMware from start up to revolutionary and her advocacy for women in tech has been immense. Diane was not only a break through talent but a trail blazer for women in tech.”
Joey Hemingbrough, Sales Director, Velocity Consulting
“I nominated Diane Greene because she’s had a huge impact on tech. She co-founded VMware and changed IT with virtualisation, paving the way for cloud computing. Later, she boosted Google Cloud’s presence in the market. Diane’s also a big advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech. Her vision, innovation, and leadership are truly inspiring.”
How did IT Channel Oxygen compile The Century’s Greatest Vendor Leaders? See here
