JOHN W. THOMPSON is chairman of the board of directors and chief
executive officer of Symantec Corporation. Since joining Symantec in
April 1999, Mr. Thompson led the transformation of the company from a
consumer software publisher to the global leader in Internet security
solutions for individuals and enterprises. Symantec has more than 100
million customers worldwide, including 98 of the Fortune 100 companies.
Symantec offers a broad range of Internet security solutions
incorporating technology, services and rapid response to protect against
Internet threats including viruses, hacking and inappropriate content.
Under Mr.Thompson’s leadership, the company defined a new category of
Internet security software for consumers and made a number of strategic
acquisitions to enhance Symantec’s ability to serve the rapidly changing
security needs of large global enterprises. Under Mr.Thompson’s
leadership, Symantec’s revenue grew from $632 million to $1.07 billion
in three years. Symantec has global operations in 38 countries and
supports customers around the world with virus and intrusion response
and research teams in Australia, Europe and the United States to detect
and defend against threats around the clock. Mr.Thompson joined Symantec
after a 28-year career with the IBM Corporation where he held senior
executive positions in sales and software development. Prior to joining
Symantec, he was general manager of IBM Americas with responsibility for
sales and support of IBM’s technology products and services, generating
$37 billion in revenues. Mr.Thompson is a member of the board of
directors of UPS, NiSource, Inc., Seagate and Crystal Decisions. He has
served as chairman of the Florida A&M University Cluster and the
Illinois Governor’s Human Resource Advisory Council. Mr.Thompson holds a
bachelor’s degree in business administration from Florida A&M University
and a master’s degree in management science from MIT’s Sloan School of
Management.
