Meet Raghu Raghuram who becomes VMware CEO after 17 years at the company

American cloud computing company, VMware has appointed Raghu Raghuram as new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a member of the Board of Directors. Raghu will assume the new role on June 1, 2021 and take over from interim CEO, Zane Rowe.

Raghu’s appointment comes five months after VMware announced that Pal Gelsinger was stepping down after eight years to join Intel as new CEO.

I am thrilled to have Raghu step into the role of CEO at VMware. Throughout his career, he has led with integrity and conviction, playing an instrumental role in the success of VMware.

Michael Dell, Chairman of the VMware Board of Directors

In his new position, Raghu will be tasked with planning out VMware’s strategic future, as well as helping customers and partners accelerate their digital businesses in the multi-cloud computing era.

VMware is set to become a standalone public company after computer tech giant, Dell disclosed it will spin off an 81% stake in the company in a deal reportedly worth about $9.7 billion. That said, VMware is still positioning itself to lead the multi-cloud computing era with its end-to-end software platform spanning clouds and its data centre.

Meet Raghu Raghuram

Raghu is an IT industry veteran and a strategic business leader who has aggregated over 17 years experience working in a variety of marketing and management roles at VMware.

Most recently, he held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Products and Cloud Services at the company.

Raghuram joined VMware in 2003 as Director of Product Management and has helped steer the company’s strategic direction and its technology evolution spanning areas including product marketing, cloud infrastructure and server business management.

He has been instrumental in guiding the company’s cloud computing business and software as a service (SaaS) transformation efforts. Raghu also played a key role in growing VMware’s core virtualisation business, defining data centre strategy, and building strategic partnerships with Dell Technologies, hyperscalers and other partners.

He is an Electrical Engineering (MSc) graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Speaking on his appointment, Raghu Raghuram said:

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.