Michael capellas biography

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He is Lead Independent Director at Cellebrite DI Ltd. since January 2025, and a board member at OnSolve LLC since October 2020.^[1]^[8]^[9]^[2]

Advisory roles

After leaving MCI in 2006, Michael Capellas joined Silver Lake Partners as a senior advisor, where he contributed to the firm's private equity investments in technology companies by providing strategic guidance on value creation and operational improvements.

Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. He is a certified public accountant.^[3]^[14] This education equipped him with foundational skills in finance, accounting, and business ethics, preparing him for entry into the professional world of technology and corporate management.^[15]

Early career

Initial roles

Capellas began his professional career shortly after graduating from Kent State University with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1976.

To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. In these roles, he focused on operational tasks within the steel industry, gaining hands-on experience in production processes and efficiency improvements in a traditional manufacturing environment.^[16]^[10]^[17]In 1981, Capellas transitioned to Schlumberger Limited, an energy services company, where he spent the initial years of his tenure in management positions related to operations and emerging technology applications in the oilfield sector, including serving as the company's first corporate director for information systems.

The family then emigrated to Ohio where Capellas' father worked his way up from laborer to superintendent at the Republic Steel Corp.

He led a successful restructuring of the organization, one of the largest in corporate history, and stepped down as CEO after MCI's merger with Verizon in 2006.

In December 2006, Capellas was appointed acting CEO of Serena Software, selected by Silver Lake Partners, the company that took Serena private in March 2006 and where Capellas served as a senior advisor.

On July 10, 2007, Capellas was identified as the new CEO of First Data Corporation.

As founder and managing partner, he focused on information technology and supply chain management consulting, advising clients on performance improvement strategies.^[16]That same year, Capellas joined SAP America as director of supply chain management, where he led business development initiatives. You can opt out at any time.

His efforts resulted in Compaq becoming Microsoft's key strategic partner for the release of its Windows 2000 operating system.

In 2001, Capellas led Compaq into an acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, but the deal was delayed for eight months because of a proxy and boardroom battle within HP. Finally, on May 3, 2002, Hewlett-Packard announced approval of the acquisition and Capellas became president of the post-merger Hewlett-Packard, under CEO Carly Fiorina, to ease the integration of the two companies.

The position was to become effective upon the completion of the leveraged buyout (LBO) of First Data by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

In 2010 it was announced he would be chairman and CEO of VCE, a joint venture of Cisco Systems and EMC Corporation with investment from Intel and VMware that specializes in cloud computing.

In July 2012 a new president and CEO of VCE replaced Capellas.

Capellas is on the board of directors for Cisco, and was on the national board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. The two married in 1979, and for the next 20 years they traveled around the world as Capellas climbed the ranks of each company he joined.

Capellas began his career at Republic Steel.

However, Capellas was reported not to be happy with his role, being said not to be utilized and being unlikely to become CEO as the board supported Fiorina. He also served as CEO of VCE from May 2010 to November 2012.^[6]^[63]^[6]Capellas also served as Chair of the Board of First Data Corporation from September 2007 to March 2010, guiding the board through the integration following its acquisition and focusing on governance in electronic commerce and payment processing.

He went on to hold senior executive roles at Schlumberger, Benchmarking Partners, SAP, and Oracle Corporation.

Michael Capellas

Michael Capellas is an American technology executive best known for serving as the president and chief executive officer of Compaq Computer Corporation from 1999 to 2002, where he led the company to become the world's largest personal computer manufacturer before overseeing its merger with Hewlett-Packard.^[1]^[2]Born on August 19, 1954, in Warren, Ohio, Capellas earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Kent State University in 1976 and is a certified public accountant.^[3]^[4] His early career began at Republic Steel, followed by various senior management positions at Schlumberger Limited from 1981 to 1996, focusing on energy services.^[3]^[2]Capellas transitioned to the software industry in 1996 as a sales manager at SAP Americas, then served as senior vice president of Oracle Corporation's global energy business from 1997 to 1998.^[3] In 1998, he joined Compaq as chief information officer, ascending to CEO in July 1999 and chairman in 2000; under his leadership, Compaq achieved record revenues and market dominance in servers and PCs.^[3]^[1] Following the 2002 merger with Hewlett-Packard, he briefly served as president of the combined entity.^[2]In 2002, Capellas became chairman and CEO of WorldCom, which he restructured post-bankruptcy, relaunching it as MCI and transforming it into the world's largest internet traffic carrier before its acquisition by Verizon in 2006.^[1]^[2] After leaving MCI in early 2006, he briefly served as acting president and CEO of Serena Software from December 2006 to February 2007.^[5] He then held the role of chairman and CEO at First Data Corporation, a global payments firm, from September 2007 to March 2010,^[6] followed by serving as founding chairman (from 2009) and CEO (from May 2010 to November 2012) of VCE Company LLC, a cloud computing joint venture of Cisco, EMC, and VMware.^[7]Since November 2012, Capellas has been the founder and chief executive officer of Capellas Strategic Partners (now Capellas Partners), a technology advisory firm, where he advises on corporate transformations and growth strategies.^[2]^[4] He has extensive board experience, including as lead independent director at Cisco Systems since 2006; he previously served as non-executive chairman at Flex Ltd.

(until 2024), chairman at Blue Yonder Group (until 2021), and lead director at MuleSoft (until 2018) and Tenable (until before 2025).^[2]^[4] In March 2025, he joined Altana as chairman of the board, bringing expertise in supply chain technology to the industrial AI company.^[1] As of November 2025, Capellas serves on boards including Cellebrite DI Ltd.

(lead independent director since January 2025) and OnSolve, and resides outside Charleston, South Carolina.^[8]^[9]

Early life and education

Early life

Michael Capellas was born on August 19, 1954, in Warren, Ohio. He served in this role until assuming the CEO position at First Data in 2007. He worked there for 30 years, says Capellas.

As an undergraduate at Kent State University, Capellas developed an interest in computers.

These experiences at Schlumberger, which continued through the 1980s and into the 1990s until 1996, involved overseeing diverse operational challenges in a global energy context.^[3]^[16]^[18]Through his foundational roles at Republic Steel and early at Schlumberger, Capellas developed key operational skills, including process optimization in heavy industrial settings, which emphasized streamlining manufacturing and service delivery to enhance efficiency and reliability.

He was also CEO during this period.^[6]^[1]^[5]In addition to these roles, Capellas served as Chair of the Board at Flex Ltd. (formerly Flextronics) until August 2024, and as Chair of the Nominating, Governance and Public Responsibility Committee, where he influenced board policies on sustainability and corporate responsibility.^[64]^[65]Capellas served as Chairman of Blue Yonder Group, Inc.

from 2017 to September 2021, leading its turnaround and eventual sale to Panasonic. In this role, Capellas leveraged his executive experience to assist portfolio companies in navigating complex tech markets, focusing on large-scale investments in software and infrastructure sectors.^[70]^[71]^[72]Capellas extended his advisory influence through his leadership in the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) coalition from 2010 to 2012, a joint venture involving EMC Corporation, Cisco Systems, VMware, and Intel, where he offered strategic counsel on converged infrastructure solutions that integrated storage, computing, and virtualization technologies.^[73] This involvement allowed him to provide informal advisory input to EMC and VMware on cloud computing architectures and enterprise data center strategies, drawing from VCE's focus on pre-engineered systems for virtualization and storage.^[74]In 2012, Capellas founded Capellas Strategic Partners, a technology advisory firm that offers tailored strategic consulting to clients, including mentorship for startups and guidance for corporate turnarounds by assembling teams of seasoned technology executives.^[2] Through this network, he has advised emerging tech ventures on scaling operations and market entry, emphasizing innovation in software and hardware integration based on his prior leadership in startup-like environments and major restructurings.^[2]As of 2025, Capellas continues to direct Capellas Strategic Partners, providing ongoing strategic guidance in high-growth areas such as cloud infrastructure and AI-enabled technologies, informed by his extensive industry network and evolving sector trends.^[6] His advisory work supports clients in adapting to AI-driven transformations, including data management and secure computing environments, while maintaining a focus on practical implementation over speculative ventures.^[75]

Michael Capellas

Capellas claims that he inherited a gritty determination from his father, a Greek citizen who fought with the Greek Army against the Germans in Italy in World War II.

After the war, the elder Capellas met and married his wife, Juliet, in Italy. Capellas joined Compaq Computer Corporation as CIO in 1998.