Google on Thursday named Diane B. Greene, a co-founder of VMware who spent a decade as the company's president and CEO before being ousted in 2008, to its board of directors.
Greene, 56, founded VMware in 1998 along with her husband, Stanford University professor Mendel Rosenblum. She was at the helm when EMC acquired VMware for $600 million in 2004, as well as for its wildly successful 2007 IPO, in which shares soared 74 percent on the first day of trading.
"I think it was an incredible marketing event for the whole virtualization industry. It was great for everybody," Greene said of VMware's IPO in a January 2008 interview with CRN.
But in July 2008, EMC CEO Joe Tucci fired Greene and replaced her with Paul Maritz, a former Microsoft executive who had joined EMC in February of that year in its acquisition of software startup Pi Corp.
Tucci's justification for firing Greene was that she lacked "operational experience," but it later emerged that the two executives hadn't been seeing eye to eye for quite some time prior to her firing.
Greene will also take a spot on Google’s Audit Committee. "Diane is a special person who combines a sharp business acumen with a brilliant technical mind, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, said in a statement. "We know she will be a great contributor and we are grateful to have her insight."
Greene has been a member of Intuit's board of directors since August 2006 and has previously held executive positions at Silicon Graphics, Tandem Computers, Sybase and VXtreme.
"Google is an asset to society because of its relentless focus on improving users’ lives through pioneering technology, and it is also a standout growing business," Greene said in a statement. "It is incredibly exciting to have the opportunity to support this as a board member."
