John Hennessy is the Chairman of Alphabet Inc., the holding company which contains Google and its former subsidiaries, such as Waymo and X. Nicknamed “the godfather of Silicon Valley”, Dr. Hennessy has been one of the leaders of the computing revolution over the past forty years.

Dr. Hennessy earned his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University in 1973 before completing both master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science at Stony Brook University. In 1984 he co-founded MIPS Computer Systems to develop high-speed computer processors, and in 1992 the company sold for $333 million. Afterward, Dr. Hennessy led the Stanford computer systems laboratory. He rose rapidly, becoming dean of the school of engineering in 1996. In 2000, he became the tenth president of Stanford University. After retiring in 2016 as head of the university, Dr. Hennessy remains heavily involved in the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, which sponsors brilliant students around the world to complete their graduate studies at Stanford. In 2017 he won the prestigious Turing Award for his contributions to computing, and today he continues to improve the world through technology as he helms Alphabet.