Diane B. Greene (born June 9, 1955) is an American technology entrepreneur and executive. Greene started her career as a

naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture occupations Design occupations Occupations Occupation commonly refers to: * Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role ...

before transitioning to the tech industry, where she was a founder and CEO of

VMware VMware, Inc. is an American cloud computing and virtualization technology company with headquarters in Palo Alto, California. VMware was the first commercially successful company to virtualize the x86 architecture. VMware's desktop software r ...

from 1998 until 2008. She was a board director of

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. I ...

and CEO of

Google Cloud Google Cloud Platform offers numerous integrated cloud-computing services, including compute, network, and storage. Products Past and present products under the Google Cloud platform include: Current * Google Cloud Datastore, a NoSQL databa ...

from 2015 until 2019. She was also the co-founder and CEO of two startups, Bebop and VXtreme,Microsoft to Acquire VXtreme'
/ref> which were acquired by

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...

, for $380 million and $75 million.

Early life and education

Born in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...

to an engineer and a teacher, Greene received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six y ...

in mechanical engineering from the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United S ...

in 1976 and a master's degree in

Naval Architecture Naval architecture, or naval engineering, is an engineering discipline incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and o ...

from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

in 1978. In 1987, she attended and graduated with a master's degree in computer science from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, where she met her future husband and co-founder of VMware,

Mendel Rosenblum Mendel Rosenblum (born 1962) is a professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and co-founder of VMware. Early life Mendel Rosenblum was born in 1962. He attended the University of Virginia, where he received a degree in mathematics. Whil ...

Career

At age 19, Greene ran the first Windsurfing World Championship and won the national women's dinghy championship in 1976. Early in her career, Greene worked as a naval architect, where she designed ocean-going vessels and offshore structures. She also ran engineering for Windsurfing International. After getting her second master's degree in computer science, she transitioned to the tech industry and worked as an engineer and manager at

Sybase Sybase, Inc. was an enterprise software and services company. The company produced software to manage and analyze information in relational databases, with facilities located in California and Massachusetts. Sybase was acquired by SAP in 2010; ...

Tandem Computers Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, and other similar commercial transaction processing applications requiring maximum upt ...

, and

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

. She also co-founded and was CEO of VXtreme, which was acquired by Microsoft and became the basis for Microsoft's movie player.

VMware

In 1998, Greene,

, Scott Devine, Edward Wang and Edouard Bugnion founded

. With Greene as CEO, VMware created the market for mainstream

virtualization In computing, virtualization or virtualisation (sometimes abbreviated v12n, a numeronym) is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something at the same abstraction level, including virtual computer hardware platforms, stor ...

and pioneered

x86 virtualization x86 virtualization is the use of hardware-assisted virtualization capabilities on an x86/x86-64 CPU. In the late 1990s x86 virtualization was achieved by complex software techniques, necessary to compensate for the processor's lack of hardware-as ...

. They first introduced the technology on the desktop as a way to run multiple

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s side by side without requiring a reboot. They then introduced virtualization on the server as a way to simplify system management, increase server utilization, and save power. Today virtualization is the ubiquitous way to run servers. In 2004, VMware was acquired by

EMC Corporation Dell EMC (EMC Corporation until 2016) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and Round Rock, Texas, United States. Dell EMC sells data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, cloud ...

for $635 million, and Greene continued as CEO. VMware functioned as subsidiary, keeping its name, brand, and products and achieving a $2 billion run rate. In 2007, VMware went public to 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 Paul Alistair Maritz (born March 16, 1955) is a computer scientist and software executive. He held positions at large companies including Microsoft and EMC Corporation. He currently serves as chairman of Pivotal Software. Early life Paul Marit ...

, a retired 14-year

veteran who was running the cloud computing business of VMware parent company EMC. Greene was asked to stay on and take a significant role in the company, but she declined. Greene has spoken about her experience founding and scaling VMware at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, at YCombinator's Startup School, on (

Linkedin LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

co-founder)

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for pro ...

's "Masters of Scale" podcast series, and more.

Google

On January 12, 2012, Greene was appointed to the Google board of directors. Greene filled the 10th seat on

's board of directors, a seat that had previously been filled in October 2009 by

Arthur D. Levinson Arthur D. Levinson (born March 31, 1950) is an American businessman and is the current chairman of Apple Inc. (2011–present) and CEO of Calico (an Alphabet Inc. venture). He is the former chief executive officer (1995–2009) and chairman (199 ...

. In November 2015, Greene was named CEO of

following the acquisition of her startup, Bebop. As CEO of Google Cloud, Greene created Google's first enterprise-capable business unit. A few months after she stepped down as CEO of Google Cloud in January 2019, Google reported that the company's cloud unit had reached $8 billion in annualized revenue. Greene was succeeded as CEO of Google Cloud by former

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word ''o ...

executive

Thomas Kurian Thomas Kurian is an Indian-American business executive and Chief Executive Officer of Google Cloud since 2019. Early life Thomas Kurian was born to P.C. Kurian and his wife Molly in 1966 in Pampady village of Kottayam district in Kerala, India. ...

. She retained a seat on the board of Alphabet.

Board Memberships

Greene has previously served as a board member of

Alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letter (alphabet), letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character ...

Intuit Intuit Inc. is an American business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application T ...

Khan Academy Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization created in 2008 by Sal Khan. Its goal is creating a set of online tools that help educate students. The organization produces short lessons in the form of videos. Its website also in ...

, and

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...

. She is currently a board member of Stripe, A.P. Moller - Maersk, and Wix.com. She also is a board member of

and is co-chair of the advisory board at the

's College of Engineering.

Awards

* In 2007, '' Fortune'' named Greene as one of America's 50 Most Powerful Women. * Greene and

received the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

Computer Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operatio ...

's Computer Entrepreneur Award in 2011 for "creating a

platform" as founders of

. * Greene was a judge for the

Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, also known as the QEPrize, is a global prize for engineering and innovation. The prize was launched in 2012 by a cross-party group consisting of David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband, then Prime Mi ...

in 2013. * In 2017, Greene was listed on

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ...

's 50 List of the world's most influential people. * In 2017, Greene was recognized with Abie Award for Technical Leadership from the

Anita Borg Institute AnitaB.org (formerly Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and Institute for Women in Technology) is a global nonprofit organization based in Belmont, California. Founded by computer scientists Anita Borg and Telle Whitney, the institute ...

as "one of the most iconic technology leaders of the last 20 years." * In 2017, Greene received an Honorary Doctor of Science from the

. * In 2018, Greene was named one of America's Top 50 Women in Tech by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also rep ...

. * In 2018, Greene was elected a member of the US

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

for contributions in transforming virtualization from a concept to an industry.

Personal life

Greene met her husband,

, while at Berkeley. The couple has two children together, a son and a daughter, and live in

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University. The population was 21,150 at the 2020 census. Stanford is an unincorporated area of ...

. Greene is also an expert crabber and sailor, having grown up doing both in Maryland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Diane UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of Vermont alumni Living people American women chief executives American technology company founders American women company founders American company founders American technology chief executives American mechanical engineers American corporate directors American women computer scientists American computer scientists Google employees Women business executives 1955 births 21st-century American women