Board Information

Co-Founder and Executive Chair

Aneel Bhusri is co-founder and executive chair at Workday. Aneel has been a leader, product visionary, and innovator in the enterprise software industry for more than 25 years.

As executive chair, Aneel serves as a strategic advisor to the CEO and other members of executive management with a particular focus on innovation and the future direction of Workday applications and technology platform. Aneel, who co-founded Workday in 2005, previously served as the company’s co-CEO from 2009–2014 with co-founder Dave Duffield, CEO from 2014–2020, and co-CEO from 2020–2024. 

Aneel has been a member of the Workday  board of directors since its founding.

Prior to Workday, Aneel held a number of leadership positions at PeopleSoft, including vice chair of the board and senior vice president responsible for product strategy, business development, and marketing. In addition to his role at Workday, Aneel is an advisory partner at Greylock Partners, a leading venture capital firm that he has been associated with since 1999, and he is a member of the Board of Trustees at Stanford University. He also serves on the board of directors of the Workday Foundation, Cruise, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Aneel previously served on the board of directors of several other companies including General Motors, Intel, Pure Storage, and Okta.

Aneel holds an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and economics from Brown University. He is a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Vice Chair and Lead Independent Director

George Still, Jr. has served on the board of directors at Workday since 2009, and as vice chair of the board of directors since 2014. George brings to the board financial and investing acumen gained through his many years as a managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a global venture capital firm. George’s experience as an advisor to a number of technology companies is also a valuable resource for the Workday board.

George is currently a Partner Emeritus at NVP. From 1994 to 2014, he served as NVP’s co-managing partner. George led the sole venture investment in PeopleSoft, where he served on the board of directors from 1991 to 2001. Prior to NVP, George worked at Ernst & Young, and as a partner at venture capital firm Centennial Funds. George served as a director and chair of the board of Stillwater Growth Corp. from February 2021 to December 2022, and as a member of the Board of Advisors of Tuck School’s Center of Private Equity and Venture Capital from 2011 to 2019. He currently serves as a director of two private companies. In addition, George served as a director of Rackspace Hosting from 2006 to 2014, the National Venture Capital Association from 1995 to 2000, and the Stanford Business School Venture Capital Trust from 1997 to 2001.

George received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Director

Tom Bogan joined Workday’s Board of Directors in February 2022 and previously served as the company’s vice chair of corporate development before retiring in January 2022. Tom brings to the board extensive executive leadership experience and expertise in software technology companies, including experience and familiarity with our business.

Tom joined Workday in 2018 through the acquisition of Adaptive Insights, where he served as chief executive officer (CEO). Prior to Adaptive Insights, he was a board member of several public and private software companies, including Citrix Systems and Apptio, where he served as chair for both companies. Tom was also a partner at Greylock Partners, where he focused on enterprise software investments. Previously, he served as president and chief operating officer at Rational Software until it was acquired by IBM, as well as CEO at Avatar Technologies and Pacific Data. He began his career as a financial officer for both public and private companies. Tom currently serves on the board of directors of Aspen Technology, Inc.

Tom graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

Independent Director

Liz Centoni joined the Workday board of directors in December 2024. Liz is a seasoned leader who has a passion for leveraging technology to drive customer success and deliver unparalleled experiences. Throughout her career, Liz has been spearheading initiatives that have significantly enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Liz Centoni has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Experience Officer at Cisco, Inc. since March 2024. Prior to that, she served as Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, and GM of Applications at Cisco from March 2020 to March 2024, and as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Computing Systems at Cisco from March 2018 to March 2020. Prior to that, Liz held senior engineering leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Cisco since 2000. She has served on the Supervisory Board of Mercedes-Benz AG since April 2021.

Liz received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Mumbai and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of San Francisco.

Independent Director

Lynne Doughtie joined the Workday board of directors in February 2021. Lynne brings to the board extensive experience in risk management and information security given her work in effectively advising organizations on complex global business matters and strategies across industries.

Lynne is the former U.S. chair and chief executive officer (CEO) of KPMG LLP (“KPMG”), a global leader in audit, tax, transaction, and advisory services, where she had been employed since 1985. Lynne served as KPMG’s U.S. chairman and CEO from July 2015 to June 2020. Prior to that, she served in many leadership roles during her career at KPMG, including vice chair of the firm’s U.S. Advisory business from October 2011 to June 2015.

Lynne has served on the board of Boeing Company since January 2021. She also serves on the board of directors of several nonprofit organizations, and on the board of advisors of various private companies and educational organizations.

Lynne received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Virginia Tech.

CEO and Director

Carl Eschenbach is CEO at Workday. He is also on the company’s board of directors, which he has been a member of since 2018.

Prior to Workday, Carl was a general partner at Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm, since April 2016. Previously, Carl spent 14 years at VMware, Inc., a global virtual infrastructure software provider, in various roles including as president, chief operating officer, acting chief financial officer, and executive vice president of worldwide field operations. Prior to joining VMware in 2002, Carl held various sales management positions with Inktomi, 3Com Corporation, Lucent Technologies Inc., and EMC.

Carl has served as a director of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. since 2013. Throughout his career, Carl has also been an active board member for other leading technology companies including Aurora Innovation, Inc., Snowflake, Inc., UiPath, Inc., and Zoom Video Communications, Inc. Carl also continues to stay involved with Sequoia in a venture partner capacity.

Carl received an Electronics Technician diploma from DeVry University.

Independent Director

Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D. has served as a Director since 2022. He is the president emeritus of Howard University, having previously served as the President from 2014 through August 2023, and is the distinguished Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine. He is also a practicing cancer surgeon at Howard University Hospital. Prior to serving as President, Dr. Frederick served as Howard University’s interim president (elected October 2013) after serving as provost and chief academic officer for more than a year.

Following his post-doctoral research and surgical oncology fellowships at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Frederick began his academic career as associate director of the Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut. Upon his return to Howard University, his academic positions included Associate Dean in the College of Medicine, Division Chief in the Department of Surgery, Director of the Cancer Center, and Deputy Provost for Health Sciences. Dr. Frederick is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and belongs to numerous surgical organizations, including the American Surgical Association. Dr. Frederick served on the board of directors of Forma Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. from July 2020 to October 2022. Dr. Frederick currently serves on the board of directors of Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, Humana, Inc., Tempus AI, Inc., and Insulet Corporation, in addition to a few other privately held companies and charitable organizations.

Dr. Frederick received a bachelor’s degree in zoology, a doctor of medicine (M.D.), and an MBA from Howard University. He brings to our board deep experience in business administration, extensive leadership skills, and insight into the healthcare and education industries.

Independent Director

Mark J. Hawkins has served as a director since 2023. Mr. Hawkins served as president and CFO Emeritus of Salesforce, Inc., a software company, from February 2021 to November 2021; president and chief financial officer from August 2017 to February 2021; and executive vice president and chief financial officer from August 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, he served as chief financial officer and executive vice president of Autodesk, Inc., a design software and services company; chief financial officer and senior vice president of Finance and IT at Logitech International S.A., a global hardware company; and held various positions at Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Mr. Hawkins has served as a director of SecureWorks Inc. since April 2016; Toast, Inc. since April 2020; and Cloudflare, Inc. since June 2022. He currently serves as a director and advisor of various privately held companies.

Mr. Hawkins received a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Colorado. He brings to our board extensive experience as an officer and director of publicly traded software and technology companies, and financial expertise in the technology industry.

Independent Director

Mike McNamara has served on the Workday board of directors since 2011. Mike brings to the board extensive leadership and experience managing international operations. As the former chief executive officer (CEO) of a large global company, Mike provides Workday with a management perspective on business and strategic decisions.

Independent Director

Michael Speiser joined Workday’s board of directors in June 2024. With more than three decades’ experience as a technology leader and venture capitalist, Michael has a proven track record of building some of the fastest growing companies in the world, developing industry-leading products, and incubating some of the most pivotal AI technologies in the tech industry. He’ll bring this expertise and more to Workday’s board of directors.

Michael has been a managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures since 2008, and serves on the boards of several private companies and unannounced projects. From 2012 to 2014, Michael served as the part-time CEO of Snowflake, Inc., and he’s served as a director since the company’s inception in 2012. He also served as founding CEO at Augment, Observe, Pure Storage, Inc., and others; and held executive leadership positions at Bix, Inc., Veritas Software, and Yahoo!.

Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Arizona, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Independent Director

Jerry Yang joined Workday’s board of directors in November 2013. Jerry brings to the board deep experience building technology products used by millions of people around the world as well as leadership experience with global organizations, particularly in markets throughout Asia.

Jerry currently works with and invests in technology entrepreneurs through AME Cloud Ventures. He serves as the chair of Stanford University’s Board of Trustees and is a director for the Monterey Peninsula Foundation. Jerry also serves as a director of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., a position he has held since 2014, and was previously a director from 2005 to 2012, and is a director and/or advisor of several other companies and foundations. Previously, Jerry co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1995, and served on its board of directors until 2012, and as chief executive officer from 2007 to 2009. While at Yahoo!, he led a number of initiatives, including two of the biggest investments in the internet: Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba Group. Jerry served as a director of Lenovo, Inc. from 2014 to November 2023, as a director of Yahoo Japan Corporation from 1996 to 2012, and as a director of Cisco Systems, Inc. from July 2000 to November 2012.

Jerry holds a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.