Charles Giancarlo

Last updated
Charles Henry "Charlie" Giancarlo
CHG.png
Born (1957-08-12) August 12, 1957 (age 66)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Brown University
University of California, Berkeley
Harvard University
OccupationBusinessman
Employer Pure Storage
Known forCo-founder, Telecom Systems & Adaptive Corporation
TitleChairman & CEO, Pure Storage
Spousemarried

Charles Henry "Charlie" Giancarlo (born 1957) is an American entrepreneur and investor. He is the chairman and CEO of data storage company Pure Storage. He is a former senior executive of Cisco Systems and Silver Lake Partners.

Contents

Early life and education

Giancarlo holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Brown University, a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Harvard University.

Career

Giancarlo co-founded Telecom Systems in 1984, and then Adaptive Corporation in 1988. [1] He joined Cisco in 1994 when it acquired Kalpana, an Ethernet switching company, where he was vice president.

Giancarlo became Cisco's first vice president of business development, where he developed Cisco's merger and acquisition strategy and practice. In 1999, he took responsibility for the commercial line of business at Cisco. He became chief technical officer in 2003 and chief technology officer in July 2004. [2] Giancarlo was responsible for many of Cisco's technologies including Ethernet switching, Wi-Fi, security, IP Telephony, and telepresence, as well as Cisco's entry into markets such as the small and medium business and consumer markets after acquiring Linksys, Scientific Atlanta, and WebEx. [1] [3] Although some analysts thought he might become chief executive after John T. Chambers, Giancarlo resigned from Cisco in December 2007. [4] [5]

In January 2008, he became a managing director and operating partner at the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners. [6] He was president and CEO of Avaya from June 2008 (replacing Louis D'Ambrosio) through December 2008.

After the appointment of Kevin J. Kennedy as CEO, he became chairman of the board at Avaya, while continuing to serve at Silver Lake [7] [8] [9] where he served on the boards of directors of Silver Lake portfolio companies Mercury Payment Systems, and Vantage Data Centers. In 2013 he was succeeded in his role at Silver Lake by Mark Gillett.

Giancarlo founded ItsOn in 2009, and was a founding investor at other ventures, including Equinix, Blue Jeans Networks, Coraid, Big Switch Networks, Avi Networks, Soraa, Enlighted, Attivo, Exablox, Formation Data, LensVector, NetSpeed, and Virtual Instruments.

In August 2017, it was announced that he would replace Scott Dietzen as CEO of Pure Storage. [10]

He serves on the boards of companies such as Accenture, [11] Arista Networks, Tintri, [12] ServiceNow, and Vectra Networks Inc. [13]

Personal life

Giancarlo has two daughters, and a son, Andrew. [14] [15]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Charles Giancarlo Biography". Cisco. Archived from the original on March 8, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  2. Matt Hamblen (July 14, 2004). "Cisco promotes Charles Giancarlo to CTO: It announced several changes to its leadership team". Computer World. IDG News Service. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  3. "Charles H. Giancarlo" (PDF). Copy of corporate biography. David Chao. March 2, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  4. Andrew R. Hickey (December 21, 2007). "Giancarlo departure won't hurt Cisco - Yet". CRN. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  5. Stephen Lawson (December 20, 2007). "Key Cisco leader Giancarlo steps down: was seen as the heir-apparent to Chambers". Computer World. IDG News Service. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  6. "Cisco's heir-apparent Charles Giancarlo resigns". USA Today. Associated Press. December 20, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  7. Kevin Kennedy to Join Avaya Inc. as President and Chief Executive Officer
  8. Giancarlo identified in 2012 in top 50 deal makers. Forbes Online, October 3, 2012
  9. "Charles Giancarlo, Managing Director, Silver Lake". YouTube video of A. Richard Netwon Distinguished Lecture Series. UC Berkeley. October 6, 2009. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15.
  10. "Welcome Charlie Giancarlo, Pure's New CEO". Company blog. Pure Storage.
  11. "Accenture Appoints Charles Giancarlo to Its Board of Directors". Press release. Accenture. December 16, 2008. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  12. "Charles Giancarlo joins Tintri Board of Directors". Press release. October 4, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  13. "Vectra Leadership". Vectra. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  14. "Avaya CEO Charles Giancarlo to Keynote VoiceCon San Francisco 2008". Press release. Avaya. October 31, 2008. Archived from the original on November 10, 2008. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  15. "Lou D'Ambrosio to Step Down as Avaya CEO and President for Medical Reasons". Press release. Avaya. June 9, 2008. Retrieved October 4, 2016.

Further reading

Business positions
Preceded by EVP, Chief Development Officer
Cisco

19932007
Succeeded by
None
Preceded by President & CEO
Avaya

20082009
Succeeded by
Preceded by Managing Director, Head of Value Creation
Silver Lake Partners

20072013
Succeeded by
Preceded by CEO
Pure Storage

2017current
Succeeded by
None