Scott A. McGregor
Scott A. McGregor is an American technology executive and philanthropist. He was the lead developer of Windows 1.0, he was the CEO of Philips Semiconductors from 2001to2004, and was the CEO of Broadcom from 2005 until its acquisition in 2016.
Early life and education
McGregor was born in and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, though he moved to Wilmington, Delaware during high school. While there, he competed and was named a runner-up in the 1974 Westinghouse Science Talent Search. As a teenager, he worked as a dish washer in a restaurant, and as a telephone solicitor for a real estate company. Beginning in 1974, he attended Stanford University, where he studied computer science with a focus on artificial intelligence. He graduated in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a master's degree in Computer Science and Computer Engineering.Career
1978–1998: Software industry
Starting in his senior year at Stanford, McGregor worked for Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Center. There, he joined a small software engineering team that helped create the windowing system for the Xerox Star—the first personal computer with a graphical user interface. McGregor worked on the operating systems's windowing system, the first system to display multiple programs at once.In 1983, McGregor was recruited by Bill Gates to join Microsoft, to be the developer team lead for Windows 1.0—the company's first graphical user interface-based operating system. McGregor led the Interactive Systems Group, and, at the time, the product was going to be called "Interface Manager". But McGregor had written the window manager component for PARC's interactive programming environment, and had called his PARC software "Windows"; it was that term that became the name for Microsoft Windows. The Interactive Systems Group began with a staff of three, characteristic of Microsoft's small development teams, but grew to more than 30members by the time they were fully staffed, making it Microsoft's single largest development group.
After leaving Microsoft, McGregor joined Digital Equipment Corporation as the Program Architect for DECwindows, where he was the co-author of the X Window System, Version11 in 1990. He went on to lead DEC's Western Software Laboratory in Palo Alto, including the company's ULTRIX workstation software. In the mid-1990s, McGregor moved to Santa Cruz Operation, where he joined as the Senior Vice President of Products, and later became the company's Senior Vice President and General Manager.
1998–2016: Semiconductors
In 1998, McGregor was hired to lead Philips Semiconductors' Emerging Business unit, a newly-formed incubator where promising technologies and products could be developed. The unit focused on rapidly growing markets such as networking, digital media, and RFID. By 2001, McGregor had grown the unit had grown to nearly $1billion in sales; that September, he was promoted to be President and CEO of Philips Semiconductors —one of Philips' five main divisions at the time, and the world's sixth-largest semiconductor company, with 35,000 employees. The unit had been unprofitable for several years; under McGregor, the unit became profitable. McGregor resigned from the role in late 2004 citing a wish to return to the U.S. for his children's school, after living abroad. Philips CEO Gerard Kleisterlee said of McGregor's departure, "We regret to see him leave. He has led the Semiconductors division through one of the most difficult periods in its history and managed to turn it around successfully into a leaner business with a strong focus on innovation."In October 2004, it was announced that McGregor would be hired as the next President and CEO of chipmaker Broadcom, one of the biggest producers of the chips used in communications equipment. McGregor took over from an interim CEO as the company sought to refocus after the departure of its co-founder and former CEO Henry Nicholas, and soon a $2.24billion. In contrast with Nicholas, observers reported in 2006 that employees found McGregor "even-keeled", and said McGregor "prides himself on his organization," although a 2011 interview called him both "amiable" and "brutally honest." During McGregor's tenure, Broadcom grew from $2.4billion to $8.6billion in revenue and became a Fortune 500 company; it first entered the list in 2009, and climbed to spot #327 in 2013.
In a 2014 interview, McGregor commented on the semiconductor industry's scale: "It has never before been possible to get an order for 100 million of something," he said. "It also means it costs $100 million or more to start a new chip company, which is why you see an industry roll-up and no venture capitalists funding new ones." He retired in 2016 upon completing Broadcom’s $37billion acquisition by Avago—part of a wave of acquisitions in the semiconductor industry, and, at the time, the largest acquisition of a technology company ever. The combined company was called Broadcom Inc.; with an annual revenue of $15billion, it had a market value of $77billion.
Boards
McGregor has served on the board of a number of public companies, as well as industry and nonprofit organizations. McGregor served on the board of Progress Software from 1998to2008. During his tenure at Broadcom, McGregor also served on the company's board. From 2010to2016, McGregor served on the board of Ingram Micro. From 2016 to 2017, McGregor served on the board of directors of Xactly Corporation. In October 2017, McGregor was appointed to the board of Equifax as an independent director, after Equifax failed to defend a data breach of 143million U.S. consumers' digital information earlier that year. There, he joined its technology committee, which oversees cybersecurity. In 2018, McGregor was appointed to the board of Applied Materials, and in 2019, McGregor joined the board of Luminar Technologies, a company developing sensors for self-driving cars.Awards
In February 2013, McGregor was named by Glassdoor as one of 50 CEOs with the highest employee approval rating, alongside the likes of Tim Cook, Howard Schultz, and Fred Smith. That June, McGregor was named one of the top 100 CEO Leaders in STEM by STEMconnector. That December, he received UCLA's Information Systems Executive Leadership Award.Philanthropy
McGregor is a philanthropist focused on STEM education. In 2009, McGregor co-founded the Broadcom Foundation, and became the foundation's first president and chairman. The foundation sponsors initiatives such as the Broadcom MASTERS, the most prominent national science and engineering competition for middle school students around the world. In creating the Broadcom Foundation, McGregor cited his own science fair involvement as a factor that contributed to his success.Since 2015, the Broadcom MASTERS competition has awarded the Scott A. McGregor Leadership Award to one middle school student elected by their peers for their leadership qualities. The Broadcom Foundation said in 2015 that the award was named for McGregor because he had been a champion of the middle school competition "from its infancy in 2010, when it was just a 'big idea.'" At the award's inaugural awards ceremony, McGregor said to the competition's finalists, "I encourage you to continue your exploration and to never be afraid to challenge yourself with new ideas." After he retired from the Broadcom Foundation in 2016, McGregor joined the Board of Trustees of the Society for Science and the Public, the organization that runs both Broadcom MASTERS and the Regeneron Science Talent Search. McGregor is also one of two dozen members of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and is a member of the Founding Circle of the B612 Foundation. McGregor has a for his work supporting STEM education.
In 2019, Harvey Mudd College broke ground on the Scott A. McGregor Computer Science Center, a new, $30million building to house the college's growing Computer Science department. Scheduled for completion in spring of 2021, the building also includes a makerspace, a machine shop, teaching and research labs, and other community resources. The building is named for McGregor, who along with his wife, trustee Laurie Girand, was a major donor for the project.
As of 2020, McGregor serves on the board of regents for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Capistrano Valley.