Today Dan
Warmenhoven, our previous CEO, announced
that Tom Georgens is our new CEO. Dan will continue as Chairman of the Board,
and he will also have a new role, reporting to Tom, focusing on relationships
with major partners. His title is Executive Chairman since he's an executive of
the company as well as a board member.
Dan has had an
astounding run. When he joined NetApp in 1994, we had forty-five employees and
less than $10 million a year in revenue. Fifteen years later, we have
eight-thousand employees and $3.4 billion in revenue. For all that we’ve
achieved, though, Dan told me that the accomplishment that meant the most to
him is being selected as the #1 Best Company To Work For by Fortune Magazine. He has always believed
that a healthy culture is just as important as healthy financials.
If Dan is so great,
why do we need a new CEO? Dan has had a long-term personal goal of retiring by
age sixty – about a year from now. In fact, his original goal was to retire by
fifty, but running NetApp was so much fun that he pushed his goal back by ten years.
The general timing came from Dan's retirement goal, but this particular quarter
felt right because the economy seems to be leveling out. Things certainly
aren't back to normal, but the crazy freefall appears to be over and a collapse
of the banking system is no longer imminent. It’s best not to change CEOs when
a crisis is in full swing.
It’s hard to
imagine – after fifteen years of working for the same person – that as of
today, I have a new boss. Fortunately, I’ve had plenty of time to get used to
the idea. The board didn’t take their final vote until just this Monday, but
we’ve been planning this transition for quite a while. When we hired Tom four
years ago to run Product Operations – engineering, manufacturing, and product
management – we knew that he was a potential successor to Dan. There was no
guarantee, but it was something we discussed in our interviews with Tom, and
part of what attracted him to join us was the opportunity to become CEO. I’ve
gotten to know Tom pretty well over the years. I like how he thinks, but
perhaps more important, I like how well he fits our culture. He is a great choice
for this role.
To people who know
how to read tea leaves, it became clear that Tom was the heir
apparent when we promoted him to President and Chief Operating Officer (COO)
and Dan became Chairman of the Board as well as CEO. Not only did most of the
company report to Tom at that point, but Dan also asked him to run our planning
process to develop annual goals and budgets. That combination of moves is a
pretty strong signal of what's coming next.
For NetApp this is
obviously a major transition, but in fact, the entire IT industry is in a
period of transition. Trends like industry consolidation, server
virtualization, and cloud computing are shaking up the IT landscape, and
everyone needs to respond. With so much change all around, it feels somehow
appropriate to have a new CEO. I've loved working with Dan – I have so much
respect for him and I've learned so much from him – but it's also exciting to
have a new leader. Here's to a new era at NetApp!
As the former minister of propaganda at your venerable enterprise ('95-'99), I say that DW presents a large pair of shoes to fill. Here's hoping the new guy is THE guy. Best wishes to all. For informative rants, visit www.standevaughn.wordpress.com
Posted by: SD | August 21, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Best wishes!
Posted by: Shibin Zhang | August 28, 2009 at 12:11 PM