John W. Thompson
John W. Thompson | |
|---|---|
John W. Thompson | |
| Born | John Wendell Thompson April 24, 1949 Fort Dix, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Education | Florida A&M University (BBA, 1971) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MBA, 1983) |
| Occupation(s) | Chairman, Microsoft Corporation Chairman, Illumina |
| Employer(s) | IBM (1971–1999) Symantec (1999–2009) Microsoft (2014–2021) Illumina (2021–2023) |
John Wendell Thompson (born April 24, 1949) is an American technology executive who was the chairman of Microsoft from 2014 until June 2021, and chairman of Illumina from 2021 until 2023. He is a former chief executive of Virtual Instruments, a vice-president at IBM and the former chief executive of Symantec. Thompson later became an independent director on the board of Microsoft, and in February 2014, was named chairman. He led the search for Microsoft's next CEO; as a result, Satya Nadella was selected.