I inherited my Greek father’s determination
Famous Greeks

I inherited my Greek father’s determination

Michael David Capellas is a famous executive of the international technology business market, with a successful career in 12 influential firms. Born in Ohio on August 19th, 1955, Capellas is currently Chairman and formerly CEO of VCE, a joint venture of Cisco and EMC with investment from Intel and VMware that specializes in computing systems. Actually, he was appointed to lead Acadia, aiming at accelerating transformation of the Data Center, helping organizations to reduce costs and improve business agility and implementation of new business applications through private cloud computing.

He previously served as Chairman and CEO of Serena Software, Compaq Computer Corporation and. Capellas himself claims that he inherited the determination from his father, a Greek citizen who fought with the Greek Army against the Germans in Italy during World War II. After the war, Michael’s father met and married the Italian Juliet and both relocated to Ohio. “My dad had an unbelievable work ethic. He was intensely loyal to the company”, Capellas claims.

Since his early age, he developed an interest in computers. After graduating Kent State University, he met his future wife Marie Angelillo and married to her in 1979. He began his career at Republic Steel and later moved on to Schlumberger, Benchmarking Partners, SAP and Oracle Corporation.

In 1998, Capellas joined Compaq Computer Corporation and was soon elevated to top positions. He served as President from 1999 to 2001 and played a major role in restoring Compaq’s relations with Microsoft. After the acquisition by Hewlett-Pacard, Capellas stayed in his position to ease the integration of the two companies. Not happy with his role and with the lack of support for his chairmanship, Capellas stepped down on November 2002. A month later, he became the President of WorldCom, but later stepped also down after its merging with Verizon in 2006.

In December 2006, he was appointed CEO of Serena Software and of First Data Corporation later on, after being bought out by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Currently, Michael David Capellas is member of the Board of Directors of Cisco Systems.

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