Stephen Gillett

Last updated
Stephen Gillett
Born (1976-01-20) January 20, 1976 (age 48)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Technology entrepreneur
  • Adviser
TitleChairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Verily

Stephen Gillett (born January 20, 1976) is an American businessman, entrepreneur and technology leader. He is currently the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer at Verily, formerly Google Life Sciences. [1] He was Chief Executive Officer of Chronicle Security, an Alphabet company born out of X, the moonshot factory and founded in 2016. [2] [3] [4] Gillett is also an active adviser at Google Ventures and X (formerly GoogleX). [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Gillett was born in Los Angeles, California. He is of Lebanese descent, his father being from Tripoli, Lebanon. Gillett moved to Eugene, Oregon, at middle-school age and later attended the University of Oregon. While there, he was a member of the Oregon Ducks football team and participated in the 1996 Cotton Bowl Classic. Gillett graduated with a bachelor's degree before attending San Francisco State University, where he received his master's in business administration.

Career

Corbis

In 2006, Gillett joined Corbis, a digital media company founded by Bill Gates, as Chief Information Officer. [6] In that role, Stephen was responsible for global technology, engineering and leading platform efforts for Corbis' e-commerce and multimedia licensing business. Gillett opened a Corbis gallery in the three-dimensional virtual world of Second Life, the online game that has grown to more than 9 million residents since its birth in 2003.

Starbucks

Gillett was hired in early 2008 as the Chief Information Officer of Starbucks, shortly after Howard Schultz returned as CEO, becoming one of the youngest CIOs of a Fortune 500 company in history, [6] where he was responsible for leading the technological transformation of Starbucks under Howard Schultz. Gillett was responsible for the global technology efforts for the Starbucks transformation and founded the Starbucks Digital Ventures team in 2009, adding the GM duties to his role as CIO. The Starbucks Technology and Digital efforts introduced many new innovations such as free wifi, mobile payments and the Starbucks Digital Network. The journey and role Starbucks Information Technology played in the transformation of the company is documented in the book “Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul”.

Best Buy

Gillett joined Best Buy in March 2012 as President and EVP of Digital, Marketing and Business Services in Minneapolis, MN. [7] Gillett was an architect of the 2012 transformation plan called Renew Blue shared at the Q4 2012 Investor meeting. [8] Gillett resigned from his role at Best Buy in December 2012 to relocate back to Silicon Valley. [9]

Symantec

Gillett joined the Board of Directors for Symantec in 2011, and was a member of the audit committee. [10] In 2012, Gillett also joined Symantec as its Chief Operating Officer. [11] Gillett worked on the divestiture of the Veritas business, which concluded in 2015. Gillett departed the company as result of the COO position being retired after the company split. [12] Symantec said Gillett would remain with the company in a non-executive role during a transitional period in 2015.

Alphabet and Google

In 2015 Gillett joined Google as an executive in residence at Google Ventures (now GV), where he still maintains an active advisory role. [13] Gillett transferred in 2016 to Google X (now X), the moonshot factory. [14] He was CEO of Chronicle, the Alphabet CyberSecurity company, born out of X, the moonshot factory [15] which was acquired into Google Cloud. [16] He is currently the Chairman, President and CEO of Verily Life Sciences, the Alphabet health tech company. [17]

Board of directors

Granular Insurance board of directors (2022-Present), chairman

Dutch Bros board of directors (2021–Present), independent director [18]

Discord board of directors (2020–Present), independent director [19]

Symantec board of directors (2011–2012), member audit committee. [20]

Chipotle Mexican Grill board of directors (2015–2017), member audit, nominating governance committee. [21]

Books

Community and volunteer service

Awards and honors

In 2006, Gillett was recognized as an innovative Guild Master in World of Warcraft by Wired. [22]

In 2009, Gillett was named a "40 Under 40 of Seattle & Puget Sound," a regional award program that spotlights the top business leaders under the age of 40.

In 2010, the Aspen Institute named Gillett in the 2010 Henry Crown Fellow Program. with fellowship class members Reid Hoffman and Tim Westergren, which is designed to engage the next generation of business people in the challenge of community-spirited leadership. [23]

In 2010, Fortune (magazine) ranked Gillett #22 in its "40 under 40" list. [24]

In 2011, CNNMoney named Gillett to the Executive Dream Team. [25]

In 2011, Geekwire named Gillett “Geek of the Week.” [26]

In 2012, InformationWeek named Gillett the Technology "Chief Of The Year". [27]

In 2012, Appinions named Gillett as one of the most influential marketing leaders in America. [28]

In 2022, The Healthcare Technology Report ranked Gillett #11 in its “Top 25 Healthcare Technology COOs” list. [29]

In 2023, Modern Healthcare nominated Gillett on its “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare” list. [30]

In 2024, D Magazine named Gillett one of "The Most Powerful Business Leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth." [31]

Personal life

Gillett lives with his family in Silicon Valley. He is an active and longtime player of MMORPGs.

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References

  1. ↑ "Verily welcomes Stephen Gillett as Chief Operating Officer to increase operational excellence | Verily Life Sciences". verily.com. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  2. ↑ Give Good the Advantage.Medium.
  3. ↑ Alphabet launches new cybersecurity company, Chronicle, out of its X moonshot factory.TechCrunch.[2018-01-24].
  4. ↑ Alphabet enters the cybersecurity business with Chronicle.engadget.[2018-01-24].
  5. ↑ "X (company)", Wikipedia, 2021-03-29, retrieved 2021-04-30
  6. 1 2 "Gaming For Deeper Connection with Stephen Gillett". Frontrowdads.com. 21 January 2020.
  7. ↑ "Best Buy Names Former Starbucks Executive Stephen Gillett EVP and President, Best Buy Digital and Global Business Services".
  8. ↑ "Death by a Billion Clicks". Wired.
  9. ↑ "Best Buy Has Lost the 'Single Most Important Executive in the Entire Company'". Business Insider .
  10. ↑ "Stephen Gillett Appointed to Symantec Board of Directors". Symantec . Archived from the original on 2019-03-27.
  11. ↑ "NortonLifeLock Inc. - About - Investor Relations". Archived from the original on March 27, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Symantec Announces Sale of Veritas to The Carlyle Group". Symantec . Archived from the original on 2016-02-17.
  13. ↑ "Former Symantec COO Stephen Gillett Joins Google Ventures as Executive in Residence". 12 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Former Starbucks CIO & Symantec COO Joins (Google) X". Forbes .
  15. ↑ "Alphabet's Latest Moonshot Graduate is Tackling Cybersecurity".
  16. ↑ "Chronicle Joining Google Cloud". 27 June 2019.
  17. ↑ "Verily welcomes Stephen Gillett as Chief Operating Officer to increase operational excellence | Verily Life Sciences".
  18. ↑ "Celebrated Tech Leader Joins Dutch Bros Coffee's Board of Directors". investors.dutchbros.com. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  19. ↑ Gillett, Stephen (2020-07-02). "Joining Board of Directors: Discord". Medium. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  20. ↑ "Stephen Gillett Appointed to Symantec Board of Directors". Symantec . Archived from the original on 2018-02-13.
  21. ↑ "Big Changes on Chipotle's Board: What Investors Need to Know". 28 March 2017.
  22. ↑ "You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired!". Wired.
  23. ↑ "[node:Title]".
  24. ↑ "40 under 40 - 22. Stephen Gillett (22) - FORTUNE".
  25. ↑ "Executive Dream Team: The rest of our roster".
  26. ↑ "Geek of the Week: Starbucks digital chief Stephen Gillett". 18 August 2011.
  27. ↑ "Starbucks' Stephen Gillett: InformationWeek's IT Chief of the Year". December 2011.
  28. ↑ http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/appinions-names-top-five-most-powerful-cmos-with-release-of-cmo-influence-study-1712893.htm [ dead link ]
  29. ↑ "The Top 25 Healthcare Technology COOs of 2022".
  30. ↑ "100 Most Influential People in Healthcare".
  31. ↑ "The Most Powerful Leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth 2024".
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