Gerald Held Biography and Net Worth

Dr. Jerry Held was appointed to the NetApp board in December 2009.

Dr. Held has, after many years leading pioneering work in the data management field, spent over 20 years as a consultant to a wide variety of technology companies, ranging from early-stage startups to large publicly traded companies. From 2006 to 2010, he was the Executive Chairman of Vertica Systems, an analytic database company that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard Company. Dr. Held served in director and executive roles at a variety of technology companies, including Business Objects SA, Tandem Computers, Inc., Oracle Corporation, Openwave Systems Inc., and SingleStore (formerly MemSQL Inc.). 

Dr. Held currently serves on the board of directors of Informatica Corporation, a data management company, and on the board of directors of several private companies, including Copia Global Inc. and Madaket, Inc. 

As a successful entrepreneur, executive, consultant and investor in technology companies, Dr. Held brings to the Board a strong technical background and extensive experience in the data management field, entrepreneurial experience and insights into the Cloud space, and over 40 years of experience in developing, managing and advising technology organizations and leading edge start-up companies through all stages of growth. Through his broad technology experience, Mr. Held also provides the Board with strong product, product marketing and customer insights, as well as expertise in technological trends and developments. 

Dr. Held received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue, an MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, where he led the initial development of the INGRES relational database management system.