Richard Belluzzo (often known as Rick Belluzzo) (born November 26, 1953) is an American businessman who worked as an executive at Hewlett-Packard, SGI, and Microsoft before becoming CEO of Quantum Corp. in 2002. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Golden Gate University.
Belluzzo worked for HP for 23 years, with his last role being executive vice president of their computer division.[1] He moved to SGI in January 1998, becoming Chairman of the Board and CEO.[2] In August 1999, Belluzzo left SGI to head Microsoft's MSN division. He eventually became President and Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft for fourteen months, but left in Spring 2002,[3] taking the reins at Quantum in September the same year.
Much of his career is clouded in controversy and many consider him to be responsible for the demise of SGI.[3][4][5][6] He was a strong advocate at HP to reduce their investments in HP-UX and PA-RISC in favor of Windows NT and Itanium, as well as getting SGI to cut their investments in IRIX and MIPS. The effect of these decisions was to destroy two of the leading platforms in Unix computing and greatly increased the opportunity for Intel and Microsoft to get into high-end computing. His actions at HP and SGI and the high position he received at MS right after earned him the nickname "the Microsoft mole"[7].
As of 2009, Belluzzo is working as a speaker on a travelling circuit that books/sells low-cost speaking events in auditoriums, civic centers, etc.[8]
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