Paul Maritz Exec of the Year – Silicon Valley

Paul and Yaffa Maritz’s Mercer Island Home

Paul Maritz, a former Microsoft top executive, was named the Silicon Valley Business Journal's 2011 Executive of the Year. “2011 has been tough for many of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies . . . All the while, VMware Inc. has been . . . steadily growing its business and developing new products that have kept it at the forefront of its industry. That's why, in this week's Business Journal, we named VMware CEO Paul Maritz as our Executive of the Year. . . is planning an expansion that will more than triple the size of its headquarters campus.”

He joined the company as CEO in 2008. VMware provides virtualization (cloud computing) software. Maritz’ corporate statement is “VMware enables our customers’ success by simplifying and automating IT in the Cloud Era.” Maritz was also the recipient of Computerworld’s 2011 Morgan Stanley Leadership Award for Global Commerce, “which recognizes individuals whose personal leadership has made a critical contribution to the effective use of information technology throughout the world.”

He was with Microsoft from 1986 to 2000. His last position was executive vice president of the Platforms Strategy and Developer Group. He was part of the 5-person executive management team and, according to Wikipedia, was the third-ranking executive behind Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He was responsible for most of Microsoft's desktop and server software, including Windows and Internet Explorer.

He has maintained his Mercer Island home that is near and south of Paul Allen’s campus/compound.  A major expansion of this home and dock house was completed in 2003. The living area is now 8,040 sq ft and the property is 1.6 acres with 169 feet of waterfront.