Gregory Reyes: CEO of his Life
“Many businesses are led by people who think that in the name of winning they can do anything. Greg’s not one of those. He’s a phenomenally bright individual, very likeable and trustworthy – and not necessarily in that order.”
-President of AMD
Gregory Reyes didn’t just fall into the high tech world, he was destined for it. His father was an engineer who emigrated from Cuba in the early 1960s. Reyes was born in Newark, New Jersey, but was raised in the Silicon Valley. Reyes Sr. has always been a role model for Reyes in terms of work ethic and business.
After graduating high school, Reyes attended St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California where he received an internship at Seagate Technologies. He loved it so much he accepted a full time job with the company while attending evening classes. He graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Economics and Business Administration.
After college, Reyes began working for Convergent Technologies, which was the leader in Unix and workstation servers at a time. Reyes worked his way up the sales rank, and his experience there led him to become the Vice President of Sales and Support at Banyan Systems, a networking and data communications software firm. Reyes then moved on to become the President and CEO of Wireless Access, which was later sold to Glenyare Technologies for $100 million. One may wonder why Reyes moved from job to job, but Reyes never considered himself a job hopper; he saw himself as someone intent on attaining the necessary skills to lead to a high tech company. Reyes quoted, “I’ve always had a plan to become CEO of a tech company, and I’ve always been very thoughtful about the companies I chose to work for and whether they would help me continue to develop the experiences I needed to accomplish this goal.”
His final and most significant position was his role as the CEO of Brocade Communications. Brocade is a high tech company that provides SAN (storage area network) infrastructures to companies such as IBM, EMC Corp, Compaq, Dell, NEC, and HP. Reyes role at Brocade was quite impressive. At his time there, Brocade turned in 7 quarters of profitability and revenue growth since May 1999 (which was when its initial public offering was). Year after year its revenue growth topped 150% the first 2 years. Seth Neiman, a Brocade board member who founded the company using funding from Crosspoint Venture Partners considered Reyes “the best CEO of any high tech company”. And he was. With Reyes as their CEO, Brocade’s performance was rock solid. Its revenue growth made it a darling of Wall Street.
It wasn’t until the Nasdaq slump when Reyes faced major tests. Brocade’s stock dropped, going from $133.77 (at highest) to $34.00,vHowever Reyes did not allow that to get in the way. He stated, “I don’t spend a lot of time looking at the stock. I spend a lot of time thinking about what we need to do to build a world-class company. We’re looking at a massive market opportunity in the next 2½ years.” Reyes was convinced Brocade would emerge as one of the premier names in data communications in the years ahead. He would not let some economic turbulence or weakness in the stock price” take his eye off the ball”.
Reyes has gained many admirers among other industry heavyweights such as Henry Ruiz, President of Advanced Micro Devices. He quoted, “Many businesses are led by people who think that in the name of winning they can do anything. Greg’s not one of those. He’s a phenomenally bright individual, very likeable and trustworthy – and not necessarily in that order. One of reasons I ended up doing a partnership with him is that he’s someone I could trust. In our business that’s very important.” Reyes gives much credit to Brocade’s success to a “vision”. His advice to young people just starting out in their professional lives is “to think of themselves as the CEO of their career.” That is what he did, and he achieved his dreams. Maybe Reyes is right, if you see it, you will be it.
I am glad to see a latino role model can achieve so much. We need more like Mr. Reyes is our culture. He should be a beacon for what is possible in America.
What a role model. Keep up the good work Mr. Reyes!
Greg you have achieved so much. You are someone people everywhere can look up to! I know you may be facing some tough times right now, but keep your head up! Remember what you stand for, and know that we believe in you!
Where we CEOs like Greg Reyes when I was working in the tech insudtry. I am going to keep an eye out for the next time he is a CEO somewhere and put in my resume.
Greg is the kind of CEO we all hope we can be.
Look at the stock price when it fell, Greg was concerned about it falling but he did not want to sacrifice the future of the company just to get the stock proces higher. If Gregory Reyes will not sacrafice one thing just for the sake of the other, where I come from we call that virtuous.
It is amazing that when you read these corporate officers from across the tech industry talk about Gregory Reyes, your first instinct is to say yeah yeah just one CEO blowing smoke for another. But, if you look at the testimonials it is evident, that Greg’s integrity isn’t a punch line. It is an absolute.
Based on the performance of Brocade during his regin as CEO it is evident that Gregory Reyes doesn’t cut corners. From what I know about Greg he puts his heart and soul into his family, friends, work and causes he believes in.
Based on my experience, I have a business a small restaurant and thanks to God until now it worked! My secret is being smart in everything and respect people behind you….
Jackie Robinson once said that “a life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Greg Reyes has an important life. From what I have read here and the testimonials he (Greg) has impacted countless lives. I wish more people were like him today.
I’m a young entrepreneur and I love to study the careers of industry leaders. Greg, your bio is truly impressive. Curious if you can recommend some great business books….
I wanted to say that this guy has helped me in ways that he could not possibly imagin. Not bad for someone who hasn’t really met face to face with you. I saw videos of your interviews and heard some of the lectures you gave at sympossiums and I used your life style as an example and I turned out pretty good. Thanks Greg I will be praying for you.
Greg Reyes goes above and beyond in everything he does. It doesn’t matter whether it is business, charitable causes or his family Greg does everything and gives everything for others.
Alan, you are so right, and I think that quote sums up Greg Reyes’ life perfectly. Greg, according to his testimonials, seems like a wonderful man. He has clearly impacted so many lives in such a wonderful, positive way. Greg, you are an inspiration.
Greg I am appalled at the way that this government has treated you and your family. I am praying for you and your family and I know that those who are right will always be vindicated. You day of complete freedom from this is coming so do not surrender or give in,
Greg built this company up to what it is today. I just do not believe he would knowingly commit fraud and throw all of what he has done and achieved away. It just doesn’t make any sense.
The skill and expertise that Greg showed while building Brocade will help him to navigate these treachous times.
The retrial of Greg has gotten under way according to http://bit.ly/9i1Y2C. The more time the prosecution spends on this is the less time they can spend on real criminals who need to be caught or tried. I wonder what cases the US Attorney’s Office had to bump from the schedule in order to prosecute this case.
Greg I am following the updates on line for the new trial and It seems that the prosecutors are still not anywhere near the type of human being you are.
Hang in there we are all behind you 100%!!!!
If you want to get people to follow your vision and trust you then you have to be honest and open. They need to see that you are real and not some plastic robot that moves when the motion sensor is tripped. Greg Reyes is a honest and open CEO. He gets his people to buy in and follow because he is right there with them and doesn’t hide. That speaks a lot to the character of a man.