Diane Greene facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Diane Greene
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| Born | June 9, 1955 Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.
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| Education | University of Vermont (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MArch) University of California, Berkeley (MS) |
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| Known for | Co-founding VMware, leadership at Google |
| Spouse(s) | Mendel Rosenblum |
| Children | 2 |
Diane B. Greene (born June 9, 1955) is an American expert in technology and business. She started her career designing ships before moving into the tech world. Diane Greene helped start a company called VMware and was its CEO from 1998 to 2008. Later, she was a director at Google and led Google Cloud from 2015 to 2019. She also co-founded two other companies, Bebop and VXtreme, which were bought by Google and Microsoft.
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Early Life and Education
Diane Greene was born in Annapolis, Maryland. Her dad was an engineer and her mom was a teacher. She earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Vermont in 1976. Then, she got a master's degree in naval architecture (ship design) from MIT in 1978.
In 1987, she earned another master's degree, this time in computer science, from the University of California, Berkeley. It was there that she met her future husband, Mendel Rosenblum. He would later help her start VMware.
Career in Technology
When she was 19, Diane Greene organized the first Windsurfing World Championship. She also won a national championship in sailing in 1976. Early in her career, she designed large ships and offshore structures. She also managed engineering for a company called Windsurfing International.
After getting her computer science degree, she moved into the tech industry. She worked as an engineer and manager at companies like Sybase and Silicon Graphics. She also co-founded and led VXtreme, a company that was bought by Microsoft. Its technology became part of Microsoft's movie player.
Founding VMware
In 1998, Diane Greene, her husband Mendel Rosenblum, and three other people started VMware. As CEO, Diane Greene helped VMware create a new way to use computers called virtualization. This technology lets you run many different computer systems on just one physical computer.
At first, VMware's technology allowed people to run different operating systems (like Windows and macOS) on the same desktop computer without restarting it. Later, they used virtualization for servers. This made it easier to manage computers, use them more efficiently, and save energy. Today, virtualization is used everywhere to run computer servers.
In 2004, EMC Corporation bought VMware for $635 million. Diane Greene stayed on as CEO. VMware kept its name and products, and its business grew to $2 billion. In 2007, VMware became a public company, meaning its shares could be bought and sold. It was valued at $19.1 billion, making it the biggest tech company to go public that year. In 2008, Diane Greene left her role as CEO of VMware.
Leading Google Cloud
On January 12, 2012, Diane Greene joined the board of directors at Google. This meant she helped guide the company's big decisions.
In November 2015, she became the CEO of Google Cloud. This happened after Google bought her startup company, Bebop. As the leader of Google Cloud, Diane Greene built Google's first major business unit for large companies. A few months after she stepped down in January 2019, Google announced that its cloud business was making $8 billion a year. She remained on the board of Google's parent company, Alphabet, until June 2019.
Serving on Boards
Diane Greene has been a board member for many important companies and organizations. These include Alphabet (Google's parent company), SAP, Stripe, A.P. Moller - Maersk, and Wix.com. In 2020, she was chosen to lead the board of directors at MIT. She also helped lead the advisory board for the engineering college at the University of California, Berkeley.
Awards and Recognition
- In 2007, Fortune magazine named Diane Greene one of America's 50 Most Powerful Women.
- In 2011, she and Mendel Rosenblum received an award for creating the virtualization platform at VMware.
- In 2017, Bloomberg listed her as one of the world's 50 most influential people.
- Also in 2017, she received an award for technical leadership from the Anita Borg Institute. They called her "one of the most iconic technology leaders of the last 20 years."
- The University of Vermont gave her an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2017.
- In 2018, Forbes magazine named her one of America's Top 50 Women in Tech.
- In 2018, she was chosen to be a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. This was for her work in turning virtualization from an idea into a major industry.
Personal Life
Diane Greene met her husband, Mendel Rosenblum, while they were studying at Berkeley. They have two children, a son and a daughter, and live in Stanford, California. Growing up in Maryland, Diane Greene became skilled at crabbing and sailing.
See also
In Spanish: Diane Greene para niños
- VMware
- EMC Corporation
- Alphabet
- Intuit
- SAP
- Stripe
- A.P. Moller - Maersk
- Wix.com
