This story was written by Scott Duke Harris of the Mercury News in San Jose, California.
Growing up on the banks of Chesapeake Bay, Diane Greene loved to sail her dinghy. She mastered windsurfing when the sport was new. She studied naval architecture and as a young woman lived in Hawaii, designing windsurfing gear.Today, Greene, at 52, is best known for navigating VMware, a company that might best be likened to a nuclear submarine.
For years VMware operated in the obscure depths of computer science, gradually developing the know-how and market for its esoteric “virtualization” software. When VMware debuted on Wall Street last month, its stock took off like a Polaris missile, with a trajectory that has pushed its market capitalization to $25.8 billion. It is America’s third most highly valued software maker, after Microsoft and Oracle.
Greene has been VMware’s chief executive since its 1998 launch as a mom-and-pop start-up. She brought business acumen to an idea that was hatched in the computer science lab of her husband, Stanford University Professor Mendel Rosenblum. Three colleagues were also co-founders.
Silicon Valley insiders credit Greene for her skill in skippering VMware, staring down Microsoft’s aggressive tactics and forging alliances on its unorthodox path to the valley’s biggest initial public offering since Google.
“I think sailboat racing taught me a lot,” Greene said. Racing and running a company, she explained, require preparation, organization and “the right team.” It requires a keen awareness of shifting conditions and the ability to weigh all the factors, including rivals: “What are the other boats doing?”
