Bill McDermott


William R. "Bill" McDermott is an American businessman and is currently CEO of ServiceNow. Before ServiceNow, he was the CEO of the technology company SAP SE. During his tenure as co-CEO and CEO, SAP's market value increased from $39 billion to $156 billion. McDermott, along with Joanne Gordon, wrote a memoir, Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office, and was awarded a gold medal for business memoir of the year by the Axiom Business Book Awards. McDermott began his role as CEO of ServiceNow in November, 2019.

Early years

Bill McDermott was born in Amityville on Long Island, where he also grew up. He is one of four children to Kathleen and Bill McDermott and a grandson to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame player Bobby McDermott.
At age 16, he bought the Amityville Country Delicatessen in Long Island for $7,000.

Education

McDermott studied Business Management at Dowling College. His deli business helped him pay for his undergraduate education. After completing his undergraduate studies, McDermott attended Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management where he earned his MBA, and then completed the Executive Development Program at the Wharton School of Business.

Career

Xerox, Gartner and Siebel Systems

McDermott worked for 17 years at Xerox
and then became the President of Gartner in 2000. From 2001 to 2002, he served as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations at Siebel Systems.

SAP

In 2002, McDermott was appointed by SAP as the CEO of SAP America. He was designated to the SAP Executive Board in 2008, and in February 2010, he became the co-CEO of SAP AG.
After four years, on May 21, 2014, McDermott became the first American to become the CEO of the company, now known as SAP SE.
Since 2010, SAP's market cap has increased from $39 billion to $144.7 billion by February 2018.
In 2016 McDermott became the best-paid executive leading the companies that form the German stock index DAX by earning a direct remuneration of €11.6 million. On October 10, 2019, McDermott decided to leave SAP SE.

ServiceNow

At the end of October after McDermott stepped down from SAP, ServiceNow announced his appointment as CEO. He will succeed John Donahoe at the end of 2019 as Donahoe finishes his tenure at the company. He cited "the company’s strength in cloud computing and enterprise software, and the challenge of building an already vibrant company further" as reasons for him to join the ServiceNow as CEO.

Awards and honors

In 2016, McDermott was named "Manager of the Year" by the German Business Daily Handelsblatt.
He has received numerous awards for his civic leadership, which includes:
  1. GENYOUth's Vanguard Award.
  2. City Year's Idealist of the Year.
  3. The We Are Family Foundation's Visionary Award,
  4. Children's Aid Society's Promise Award.
McDermott recently was recognized as a top CEO by Glassdoor in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Affiliations

McDermott is a member of the Business Roundtable and the European Roundtable of Industrialists.

Personal life

McDermott and his wife Julie, have two sons. In July 2015, McDermott suffered from a fall that cost him his left eye, but he returned to SAP headquarters in October of that same year.