rick belluzzo
Rick Belluzzo, a son of Italian immigrants, was born in San Francisco and spent his entire childhood Northern California. Belluzzo learned early in life the important of hard work and ambition. Upon graduation from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, he began his career as a cost account at Hewlett-Packard. He continued at Hewlett-Packard for 23 years, eventually leading the Computer Organization which represented over 2/3rds of the company revenue and 76,000 employees.
Belluzzo made his mark at HP leading the HP Hardcopy and Imaging Business which grew from an insignificant market position to become the industry leader in printers, Digital imaging, copiers, and virtually every product that involved creating a printer document. This transition resulted from new printing innovations applied to traditional products and ultimately altered the industry.Belluzzo was then promoted to become Executive Vice
President for all of HP’s computer products and services.
After gaining a reputation as a leader that can transform technology companies, Belluzzo was recruited to join Microsoft as a Group Vice President of the Consumer business. The most notable success was the development and launch of the X-Box gaming system. He was then promoted to President and COO.
In 2002, Belluzzo left Microsoft and became the Chairman and CEO of Quantum Corporation, a leader in Data Storage. After 9 years as Chairman CEO of Quantum, he departed and has taken on several new initiatives, including Chairman of JDSU, Strategic Advisor for the Gores Group, Vice Chairman and advisor for Bravosolution, a European Supply Chain software and services company, and also serves on several public company Boards. Belluzzo also spends time on his passion of helping young entrepreneurs build their business. He has invested and acted as mentor for several young companies.
In July of 2013 Belluzzo co-authored Hard Headed and Softhearted: Lessons from the Boardroom to the Breakroom. Here he and his co-author Krish Dhanam share a series of lessons/principles built around the view that sustainable success requires developing skills and practices that embrace both IQ and EQ—achieving results and building for the future.
Through his career Belluzzo has been focused on managing through demanding change and has focused on transforming businesses, which has become the foundation of his involvement in consulting and speaking.