CA Names Former Microsoft, IBM Exec as CTO

IT management software company CA announced Sept. 29 that Donald Ferguson, formerly the company's chief architect, has been named its CTO.

Ferguson will report to Ajei Gopal, executive vice president for CA's Products and Technology Group.

"Don is one of the IT industry's most accomplished and respected technologists," Gopal said in a news release. "As CA's chief architect, Don has helped establish CA on the leading edge of innovation in virtualization and cloud computing. He has been instrumental in ensuring the superior quality, integration, architecture and functionality of CA's award-winning products. In his new role as CTO, Don's knowledge, experience and vision will help drive CA to new levels of innovation and technological leadership."

CA CEO John Swainson plans to retire at the end of 2009. Click here to read more. 

Ferguson is one of few people who have been both an IBM Fellow and a Microsoft Technical Fellow. In just 18 months at CA, he has played a leading role in a variety of CA innovations—including the development of CA Catalyst, "a set of new engines that modernize interfaces to CA products and integrate the products using Web service standards," according to the release. Not coincidentally, having worked at both IBM and Microsoft—two Web services pioneers—Ferguson helped author many of the initial Web services standards.

"CA has the strongest product portfolio in its history," Ferguson said in the statement. "As CTO I intend to work with CA's outstanding technologists to build on that foundation to accelerate the company's drive into a wide array of promising growth areas, including virtualization and cloud computing." CA's announcement concluded:

"Prior to joining CA in 2008, Ferguson worked at Microsoft in the Office of the CTO and was one of approximately 22 Microsoft Technical Fellows. His projects included exploring the future of enterprise software, with a special emphasis on Web services, Internet application platforms and model-driven development.

"Ferguson began his career at IBM where he held a number of positions, including chief architect for the IBM Software Group. In 2001 he was named an IBM Fellow, IBM's highest technical honor, held by approximately 50 IBM Fellows in the 150,000-person engineering team.

Ferguson earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia University in 1989. He has contributed to approximately 30 technical journal and conference publications, and has more than a dozen patents."