14 DAY TRIAL // Recently, Microsoft has made a series of changes to its board of directors. The company appointed John W. Thompson, chief executive officer of privately held Virtual Instruments and former chairman and CEO of Symantec Corp., as the tenth member of the board.
Thompson is currently the CEO of Virtual Instruments, a privately held company located in San Jose, California. The company offers products meant to ensure the performance and availability of apps in virtualized and cloud environments.
Starting with 2009, Thompson has been an active investor in various early-stage technology companies in Silicon Valley, Microsoft notes.
He is also a member of the United Parcel Service’s board, while being part of a series of government boards and commissions.
“John has extraordinary technology and business expertise, and we are delighted that he is joining Microsoft’s board of directors,” said Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman.
Between 1999 and 2009, Thomson was CEO of Symantec Corp and helped the company to increase its revenues from $632 million to $6.2 billion, while expanding the company’s global workforce to over 17,500 employees.
Although he stepped down as CEO of Symantec in 2009, Thompson remained in the company’s board of directors until 2011.
He held other leading positions as well, including one in IBM (sales, marketing, software development and general manager of IBM Americas).
“John brings a wealth of experience, from enterprise customers to individual consumers, as well as the insights that come from running a successful large global software company and a fast-emerging startup. He will be a great addition to our board,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive officer.
Thomson said that he was honored to join the Microsoft board. “Microsoft has been a leader across the entire information technology landscape for decades, and I look forward to sharing my experiences and contributing to the future direction and growth of this global leader.”
Microsoft’s board of directors also includes Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman; Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO; Dina Dublon, former chief financial officer of JPMorgan Chase; Raymond V. Gilmartin, former chairman, president and CEO of Merck & Co. Inc.; Reed Hastings, founder, chairman and CEO of Netflix Inc.; Dr. Maria M. Klawe, president, Harvey Mudd College; David F. Marquardt, general partner at August Capital; Charles H. Noski, vice chairman of Bank of America Corp.; and Dr. Helmut G. W. Panke, former chairman of the board of management at BMW AG.