Richard Belluzzo
Encyclopedia
Richard Belluzzo (born November 26, 1953) is an American
businessman who worked as an executive at Hewlett-Packard
, SGI
, and Microsoft
before becoming CEO of Quantum Corp.
in 2002. He holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in accounting from Golden Gate University
.
Belluzzo worked for HP for 23 years, with his last role being executive vice president of their computer division. He moved to SGI in January 1998, becoming Chairman of the Board and CEO. In August 1999, Belluzzo left SGI to head Microsoft's MSN
division. He eventually became President and Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft for fourteen months, but left in Spring 2002, taking the reins at Quantum in September the same year.
Much of his career is clouded in controversy and many consider him to be responsible for the demise of SGI.
He was a strong advocate at HP to reduce their investments in HP-UX
and PA-RISC
in favor of Windows NT
and Itanium
, as well as getting SGI to cut their investments in IRIX
and MIPS
. The effect of these decisions was to destroy two of the leading platforms in Unix
computing and greatly increased the opportunity for Intel and Microsoft to get into high-end computing. His actions at HP and SGI and the high position he received at MS right after earned him the nickname "the Microsoft mole".
As of 2009, Belluzzo is working as a speaker on a travelling circuit that books/sells low-cost speaking events in auditoriums, civic centers, etc.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
businessman who worked as an executive at Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, SGI
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...
, and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
before becoming CEO of Quantum Corp.
Quantum Corp.
Quantum Corporation is a manufacturer of tape drive, tape automation, data deduplication storage products and scalable file storage software, based in San Jose, California...
in 2002. He holds a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in accounting from Golden Gate University
Golden Gate University
Golden Gate University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in the South of Market district, immediately south of the Financial District of downtown San Francisco, California...
.
Belluzzo worked for HP for 23 years, with his last role being executive vice president of their computer division. He moved to SGI in January 1998, becoming Chairman of the Board and CEO. In August 1999, Belluzzo left SGI to head Microsoft's MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
division. He eventually became President and Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft for fourteen months, but left in Spring 2002, taking the reins at Quantum in September the same year.
Much of his career is clouded in controversy and many consider him to be responsible for the demise of SGI.
He was a strong advocate at HP to reduce their investments in HP-UX
HP-UX
HP-UX is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on UNIX System V and first released in 1984...
and PA-RISC
PA-RISC
PA-RISC is an instruction set architecture developed by Hewlett-Packard. As the name implies, it is a reduced instruction set computer architecture, where the PA stands for Precision Architecture...
in favor of Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
and Itanium
Itanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
, as well as getting SGI to cut their investments in IRIX
IRIX
IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...
and MIPS
MIPS Technologies
MIPS Technologies, Inc. , formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of pioneering RISC chips. MIPS provides processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking and mobile applications.MIPS Computer Systems Inc. was...
. The effect of these decisions was to destroy two of the leading platforms in Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
computing and greatly increased the opportunity for Intel and Microsoft to get into high-end computing. His actions at HP and SGI and the high position he received at MS right after earned him the nickname "the Microsoft mole".
As of 2009, Belluzzo is working as a speaker on a travelling circuit that books/sells low-cost speaking events in auditoriums, civic centers, etc.