VMware’s board of directors announced that it has made a change in the leadership of the company with the departure of Diane Greene as president and CEO. VMware’s board of directors has appointed Paul Maritz as president and CEO of VMware effective immediately. Maritz was also named to VMware’s board of directors.
“As one of the founders and the leader of VMware, Diane guided the creation and development of a company that is changing the way that people think about computing. The board thanks her for her considerable contributions to VMware and wishes her every success in the future,” stated Joe Tucci, chairman of VMware’s board of directors.
Tucci continued, “VMware is in a tremendous position to extend its lead in the virtualization market. VMware’s board of directors is very pleased to be able to appoint an executive with Paul’s experience and track record to lead VMware to its next stage of growth and development. Paul is a leader in the software industry. He has decades of experience building one of the greatest franchises in software history, Windows. Paul was instrumental as part of the core executive leadership team in building much of Microsoft’s success.”
Maritz retired from Microsoft in 2000, after 14 years there. During this period, he managed the development and marketing of many of the company’s major products, including such major releases as Windows 95, Windows NT, Database, Tools and Applications.
In 2003, Maritz founded Pi Corp., a startup software company focused on building cloud-based solutions for new ways of doing personal information management. Pi Corp. was acquired by EMC in February 2008, and Maritz became president of the EMC Cloud Division.
VMware expects to announce earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, as scheduled at 2 p.m PST on July 22. On that call Maritz will make observations about the second half of 2008. While VMware is not updating guidance for Q2, it expects revenues for the full year of 2008 will be modestly below the previous guidance of 50 percent growth over 2007.
About VMware
VMware is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 100,000 customers and nearly 14,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. VMware is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., and on the Web at www.vmware.com.