John W. Thompson is chairman of the board of directors of Symantec Corporation. During his 10-year tenure as chief executive officer, he helped transform Symantec into a leader in security, storage and systems management solutions delivered to a broad base of customers, from individual consumers to the largest enterprises in the world. From 1999 to 2009, Symantec’s revenues grew from $632M to $6.2B and its worldwide workforce reach over 17,000 employees.

Since 2009, Thompson has been an active investor in early-stage technology companies in Silicon Valley. He recently became the chief executive officer of one of the portfolio companies, Virtual Instruments, a privately held company focused on optimizing the IT infrastructure for today’s cloud computing environments. He also serves as a director on the boards of UPS, the world leader in global logistics, and Seagate Technology, the world leader disk-drive development and manufacturing.

He has served on the national board of Teach for America, an organization dedicated to eliminating educational inequities for all children and was recognized in 2010 by Silicon Valley Education Foundation for his commitments to improve the educational opportunities of all children. In addition, in 2008 he was inducted into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame.

Thompson completed his undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University and holds a master’s degree in management science from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. In addition, in May 2008, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Notre Dame University.