Andrew Anagnost is the President and CEO of Autodesk, having been appointed to the positions in 2017.[1] He took over the positions from Carl Bass, who resigned in February 2017.[1] Before the promotion, he had served in various other roles for the company since joining in 1997.[2] He holds degrees from California State University, Northridge and Stanford University.[3]

Early life and education

Anagnost grew up in Van Nuys, California and initially dropped out of high school.[3] After issues with legal and educational authorities, his family helped him enroll in a new high school and he went on to graduate.[3] Afterwards, Anagnost went on to earn a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from California State University, Northridge (CSUN) in 1987.[4] His mother, sister, and brother also graduated from CSUN.[4] During his bachelor's degree, Anagnost completed an internship at Lockheed Martin.[3] He later obtained an MS in engineering science and a PhD in aeronautical engineering with a minor in computer science from Stanford University.[5]

Career

Following graduation from his bachelor's, Anagnost initially worked as a composites structure engineer and propulsion installation engineer at Lockheed Martin, where he had previously interned.[3][6] He left the position to pursue his further education at Stanford, leading to a position at the NASA Ames Research Center as a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow.[6] Finding the aeronautics business 'too slow', he joined the Exa Corporation in Boston in 1992, before joining Autodesk as a product manager in 1997.[7]

Early on in his career at Autodesk, he led development of the company’s manufacturing products and increased the revenue of Autodesk Inventor five-fold to more than $500 million.[5][8] Working his way up through the company over the years, he achieved the position of Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of the Business Strategy & Marketing. In these roles, he was credited with Autodesk's transition to software as a service, as well as the adoption of cloud computing.[5][8]

Following the resignation of Carl Bass, Anagnost was appointed as interim-CEO together with Amar Hanspal, the Chief Product Officer.[1] Following a four month search, Anagnost was permanently appointed as President and CEO of the company.[1] In this role, Anagnost has pushed for a refocus of the company on software for construction, leading to the demise of some other company ventures and a workforce slash which saw 1,200 employees lose their job at the company.[7] As part of the new focus, Autodesk acquired construction tech start-ups PlanGrid for $875 million, the company's biggest ever acquisition, and BuildingConnected for $275 million in 2018.[9] Additionally, since becoming CEO, the company's share price has nearly tripled and Autodesk has reached a market value of $41.1B, entering the Forbes Global 2000 and Fortune 500.[7][10][11]

Personal life and philanthropy

Growing up, Anagnost's dream job was to work on space ships for NASA.[12] He enjoys reading science fiction novels, with The Fountains of Paradise being one of his favorite works, and is a fan of both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises.[12]

In 2018, Anagnost was one of the judges in the Annual Engineering Showcase at his alma mater CSUN and hosted a talk at the university.[13][14] The following year he was rewarded with the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from CSUN.[15] That same year, Anagnost and his wife donated $300,000 to the university to establish the Teresa Sendra-Anagnost Memorial Scholarship Endowment in honor of his mother, who died in 2011 after suffering complications from cardiac surgery.[4] The endowment supports outstanding students in the university's College of Engineering and Computer Science through funding of their education.[4] Autodesk also donated $1 million to CSUN in 2020 to support the founding and construction of a Center for Integrated Design and Advanced Manufacturing at the university.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 www.ETCIO.com. "Autodesk names Andrew Anagnost as President and CEO - ET CIO". ETCIO.com. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  2. ↑ PRNewsWire. "Autodesk Names Andrew Anagnost President and CEO". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Bennett, Jacob (2018). "Making The Future : Andrew Anagnost". CSUN Magazine.
  4. 1 2 3 4 CSUN (2019-09-03). "$300K Anagnost Gift Creates Engineering Scholarships for CSUN Students". CSUN Shine Today.
  5. 1 2 3 "Andrew Anagnost". www.autodesk.com. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  6. 1 2 "Andrew Anagnost, Senior Vice President, Industry Strategy & Marketing, Autodesk". www.vbprofiles.com. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  7. 1 2 3 Konrad, Alex. "Blueprint For Remodel: Why Design Software Pioneer Autodesk Is Betting Its Future On Construction Tech". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  8. 1 2 Williamson, Jonny. "Autodesk names new president & CEO". The Manufacturer. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  9. ↑ "Autodesk to Buy Construction Startup PlanGrid for $875 Million". Fortune. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  10. ↑ "Global 2000 - The World's Largest Public Companies 2020". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  11. ↑ "Autodesk Company Profile". Fortune. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  12. 1 2 Autodesk Education (2018-11-26). "Getting to know Andrew Anagnost over a game of Jenga". Youtube.
  13. ↑ Bennett, Jacob (2018-04-30). "Alumnus CEO Anagnost: The Future is About Finding Skills to Thrive and Grow". CSUN Today.
  14. ↑ Palma, Jan (2018-05-10). "CSUN Students Present Senior Projects at Annual Engineering Showcase". CSUN Today.
  15. ↑ Osborne, Cary (2019-04-16). "Three Remarkable Matadors Honored at 2019 Distinguished Alumni Awards". CSUN Today.
  16. ↑ "CSUN Gifted with $1M from Design Software Giant Autodesk". SCVNews.com. 2020-01-16. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
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