VMware names Raghu Raghuram as CEO to guide company through Dell Technologies spin-off

VMware has promoted product and cloud services COO Raghu Raghuram (pictured above) to the role of CEO, as the virtualisation giant readies itself to be spun off from its parent company, Dell Technologies, later this year.

Raghuram is a longstanding VMware employee, having joined the company in 2003. He is credited with playing a major role in shaping the company’s strategy as it moved to expand beyond its roots as a purveyor of virtualisation technologies into the software-defined datacentre and multicloud markets.

This work has included being actively involved in the company’s mergers and acquisitions strategy, and helping to build technology partnerships between VMware and hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, as it sought to flesh out its hybrid cloud offering for enterprises.

Raghuram takes over in June from VMware CFO Zane Rowe, who has been the company’s interim CEO since former chief Pat Gelsinger left the company in February 2021 to lead chipmaking giant Intel.

In his new role, Raghuram will also be tasked with steering VMware through the completion of its spin-off from parent company Dell Technologies, which was announced last month and is on course to be finalised by the final quarter of 2021.

The spin-off will see Dell Technologies divest its 81% controlling stake in VMware, resulting in the two companies becoming separate entities, although both have agreed to embark on a commercial agreement to co-develop products on behalf of their joint customers once the process is complete.

Michael Dell, Dell Technologies CEO and chairman of the VMware board, said Raghuram would be a great fit as CEO, having played an “instrumental role” in the company’s success to date.

“Raghu is now in position to architect VMware’s future, helping customers and partners accelerate their digital businesses in this multicloud world,” he said.

Raghuram said he was “honoured, humbled and excited” to have been chosen to guide the company to a “new phase of growth”.

“VMware is uniquely poised to lead the multicloud computing era with an end-to-end software platform spanning clouds, the datacentre and the edge, helping to accelerate our customers’ digital transformations,” he added.

“We have enormous opportunity, we have the right solutions, the right team, and we will continue to execute with focus, passion and agility.”