VMware announced that its board of directors has appointed Rangarajan (Raghu) Raghuram as chief executive officer and member of the board of directors, effective June 1, 2021, according to a statement released by the company.
Earlier this year, VMware’s board began the search for a successor to Pat Gelsinger, who exited VMware in February 2021 to take over the CEO role at Intel from Bob Swan, as ChannelE2E reported.
VMware Names Successor to Pat Gelsinger
Zane Rowe, VMware’s chief financial officer, served as interim CEO while the search was underway, the software company said.
An industry veteran, Raghuram currently serves as executive vice president and chief operating officer, products and cloud services at VMware. Since joining VMware in 2003, Raghuram has helped steer the company’s strategic direction and its technology evolution by growing the core virtualization business, driving VMware’s software-defined data center strategy, guiding VMware’s cloud computing business and SaaS transformation efforts and playing a pivotal role in the company’s M&A strategy, according to the statement. Raghuram also has been key in driving strategic partnerships, according to the statement.
VMware also announced that Sumit Dhawan has been named president, leading all go-to-market functions including worldwide sales, worldwide partner and commercial organization, customer experience and success (CXS), marketing and communications. Dhawan currently serves as senior vice president and chief customer officer at VMware where he has helped design the business strategy for emerging multi-cloud and subscriptions offerings, according to the statement.
Rangarajan Raghuram Appointed VMware CEO: Executive Commentary
Paul Sagan, VMware’s lead independent director commented on the announcement:
“After a thorough and thoughtful search, the Board concluded that Raghu is the best person to lead the company as CEO, because he embodies our innovative culture, represents our values, and has a clear vision for VMware’s future. We also want to thank Zane Rowe for his leadership as Interim CEO and the crucial role he plays continuing as CFO.”
Raghu Raghuram said:
“VMware is uniquely poised to lead the multi-cloud computing era with an end-to-end software platform spanning clouds, the data center and the edge, helping to accelerate our customers’ digital transformations. I am honored, humbled and excited to have been chosen to lead this company to a new phase of growth. We have enormous opportunity, we have the right solutions, the right team, and we will continue to execute with focus, passion, and agility.”
