John Wendell Thompson (born April 24, 1949) is an American technology executive, serving as the current Chairman of Microsoft. He is a former chief executive of Virtual Instruments, a Vice-President at IBM and the former chief executive of Symantec. Thompson later became an independent Director on the Board of Microsoft, and on February 4, 2014, he was named the Chairman of the Board. He led the search for Microsoft's next CEO; as a result, Satya Nadella was selected.