William R. McDermott (born August 18, 1961) is an American businessman and CEO of

ServiceNow ServiceNow, Inc. is an American software company based in Santa Clara, California, that supplies a cloud computing platform for the creation and management of automated business workflows. It is used predominantly for the automation of informati ...

. Before ServiceNow, he was the CEO of the technology company

SAP SE Sap is a fluid transported in the 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 s ...

. During his tenure as co-CEO and CEO, SAP's market value increased from $39 billion to $156 billion. McDermott, along with Joanne Gordon, wrote a memoir, ''Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office'', and was awarded a gold medal for business memoir of the year by the Axiom Business Book Awards. McDermott began his role as CEO of ServiceNow in November 2019.

Early years

Bill McDermott was born in

Amityville Amityville () is a village in the Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 9,500 at the 2020 census. The village maintains its own accredited law enforcement agency, ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, where he also grew up. He is one of four children to Kathleen and Bill McDermott and a grandson to

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

player

Bobby McDermott Robert Frederick McDermott (January 7, 1914 – October 3, 1963) was an American professional basketball player in the 1930s and 1940s. He was known as an outstanding shooter and has been called "the greatest long-distance shooter in the history ...

. At age 16, he bought the Amityville Country Delicatessen in Long Island for $7,000.

Education

McDermott studied Business Management at

Dowling College Dowling College was a private college on Long Island, New York. It was established in 1968 and had its main campus located in Oakdale, New York on the site of William K. Vanderbilt's mansion Idle Hour. Dowling also included a campus in Shirle ...

. His deli business helped him pay for his undergraduate education. After completing his undergraduate studies, McDermott attended

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

's Kellogg School of Management where he earned his MBA, and then completed the Executive Development Program at the

Wharton School of Business The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

Career

Xerox, Gartner and Siebel Systems

McDermott worked for 17 years at Xerox and then became the president of

Gartner Gartner, Inc. is an American research and advisory firm focusing on business and technology topics. Gartner provides its products and services through research reports, conferences, and consulting. Its clients include large corporations, gover ...

in 2000. From 2001 to 2002, he was executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations at

Siebel Systems Siebel Systems, Inc. () was an American software company principally engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of customer relationship management (CRM) applications—notably Siebel CRM. The company was founded by Thomas Sieb ...

SAP

In 2002, McDermott was appointed by SAP as the CEO of SAP America. He was designated to the SAP Executive Board in 2008, and in February 2010, he became the co-CEO of SAP AG. After four years, on May 21, 2014, McDermott became the first American to become the CEO of the company, now known as

. SAP's market capitalization increased from $39 billion to $144 billion between 2010 and 2018. In 2016 McDermott became the best-paid executive leading the companies that form the German stock index

DAX The DAX (''Deutscher Aktienindex'' (German stock index); ) is a stock market index consisting of the 40 major German blue chip companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It is a total return index. Prices are taken from the Xetra t ...

by earning a direct remuneration of €11.6 million. On October 10, 2019, McDermott decided to leave SAP SE. SAP did many acquisitions under his tenure, starting with Sybase in 2010.

ServiceNow

At the end of October 2019 after McDermott stepped down from SAP,

announced his appointment as CEO. He succeeded

John Donahoe John Joseph Donahoe II (born April 30, 1960) is an American businessman who was the CEO of Nike from January 2020 to October 2024. Early in his career, he worked for Bain & Company, becoming the firm's president and CEO in 1999. He is on the boar ...

at the end of 2019 as Donahoe finished his tenure at the company. He cited "the company’s strength in cloud computing and enterprise software, and the challenge of building an already vibrant company further" as reasons for him to join

as CEO. In 2021, McDermott was the 3rd highest paid

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of all

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and in ...

CEOs, receiving over $162 million in equity and $3.5 million in cash and other forms of compensation from

Awards and honors

In 2016, McDermott was named "Manager of the Year" by the German Business Daily ''

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf by Handelsblatt Media Group, formerly known as Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt. History and profile ''Handelsblatt'' was es ...

''. He has received numerous awards for his civic leadership, which includes: # GENYOUth's Vanguard Award. # City Year's Idealist of the Year. # The We Are Family Foundation's Visionary Award, # Children's Aid Society's Promise Award. McDermott recently was recognized as a top CEO by

Glassdoor Glassdoor is an American website where current and former employees anonymously review companies, operated by the company of the same name. In 2018, the company was acquired by the Japanese company Recruit Holdings (owner of Indeed) for US$1. ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Affiliations

McDermott is a member of the

Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a nonprofit lobbyist association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers of major U.S. companies. Unlike the United States Chamber of Commerce, whose members are entire businesses, ...

. He wrote the forward for ''Transform Your Business and The Leadership Conversation: Make Bold Change One Conversation at a Time'' by Rose Fass.

Personal life

McDermott and his wife Julie have two sons. In July 2015, McDermott slipped and fell down the stairs while carrying a glass of water. The glass shattered into pieces, with one going through his left eye. He underwent "11 or 12 surgeries by the time it was all done", but ultimately the accident cost him his left eye. McDermott returned to SAP headquarters in October of that same year, with one eye. He is the grandson of

References

External links

McDermott profile
gulfbusiness.com, October 2012; accessed March 31, 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:McDermott, Bill Living people SAP SE people American technology chief executives People from Amityville, New York Businesspeople from New York (state) Kellogg School of Management alumni Dowling College alumni Wharton School alumni 1961 births