Background
Paul Maritz was born and raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
computer software company executive
Paul Maritz was born and raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
Graduate in Mathematics and Computer Science, University Cape Town.
He held positions at large companies including Microsoft and Electric Membership Corporation Corporation. His family later moved to South Africa where he was schooled at Highbury Preparatory School and Hilton College. He received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Natal, and a Bachelor of Science
(Honours) degree, also in Computer Science, from the University of Cape Town in 1977.
After finishing his graduate studies, Maritz had a programming job with Burroughs Corporation and later became a researcher at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland, before moving to Silicon Valley in 1981 to join Intel. He worked for Intel for five years, including developing early tools to help developers write software for the then-new x86 platform, before joining Microsoft in 1986.
From 1986 to 2000 he worked at Microsoft, becoming executive vice president of the Platforms Strategy and Developer Group and part of the 5-person executive management team He was often said to be the third-ranking executive, behind Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.
He was responsible for essentially all of Microsoft"s desktop and server software, including such major initiatives as the development of Windows 95, Windows Northwest Territories, and Internet Explorer.
He was the highest-ranking executive to testify at the antitrust trial of Microsoft in 1999. While at Microsoft, Maritz was credited with originating the term "eating your own dogfood" also known as dogfooding. In July 1999 he announced he would have a reduced role at Microsoft, and resigned in September 2000 around the announcement of Windows Master of Engineering.
According to Steve Ballmer Maritz was "truly a leader among leaders".
Bill Gates stated that "Paul"s vision and technological insight has had a major impact not only on Microsoft but on the entire computer industry."
He then co-founded, and was Chief Executive Officer of Pi Corporation, a company backed by Warburg Pincus, which developed software for Linux with development in Bangalore, India.
When Pi was acquired by Electric Membership Corporation in February 2008, Maritz briefly became president and general manager of Electric Membership Corporation Corporation"s cloud computing division. He was succeeded as Chief Executive Officer by Pat Gelsinger on September 1, 2012.
In April 2013 he was announced as the Chief Executive Officer of GoPivotal, Incorporated. (Pivotal), a venture funded by General Electric (General Electric), Electric Membership Corporation and VMware which he led until August 2015.
In October 2013 he was reported to again be under consideration to become chief executive of Microsoft, succeeding Ballmer.
He was an angel investor in Apture. He sponsors third-world development projects and is the chairman of the board of the Grameen Foundation. In 2010 Paul Maritz was named by CRN Magazine the number one Most Influential Executive of 2010.
As well in 2011, the Silicon Valley Business Journal announced Paul Maritz as the Executive of the Year.
Chairman board Grameen Foundation.
Married; 3 children.