Kurt Daniel

Chief Executive Officer Virtuozzo

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2026

Executive Summary

Kurt Daniel is Chief Executive Officer of Virtuozzo, which makes infrastructure software (hyperconverged infrastructure, virtualization, software-defined storage and application management) that cloud service providers, SaaS companies and others use to build and sell their own cloud services. He was appointed in February 2026 and took over from founder Serg Bell, who stayed on as chairman and “chief constructor”. Daniel has spent most of his career in databases and infrastructure software. He worked on Microsoft’s SQL Server product team and was part of the leadership team at 10gen, the company that became MongoDB. He had also worked with Virtuozzo in its Parallels days, and he described the appointment as a return after 15 years. In April 2026 he joined the board of the MariaDB Foundation.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Virtuozzo since an appointment announced on 4 February 2026.
• Joined the board of directors of the MariaDB Foundation, announced on 21 April 2026.
• At Microsoft, built and led a product management team in the SQL Server group for a database portfolio the MariaDB Foundation puts at more than $1.5 billion in revenue.
• Joined 10gen’s leadership team from Microsoft. He says his team renamed the company MongoDB.
• Virtuozzo says he has led four technology companies as CEO and contributed to 12 exits: three IPOs and nine acquisitions.
• Independent board member or adviser to companies including Code Climate, Kloog (acquired by Facebook), Lightyear and Quicksave Interactive, according to Virtuozzo.

Professional Journey

Daniel worked in the SQL Server product group at Microsoft. The MariaDB Foundation says he built and led a product management team there for a database portfolio that generated more than $1.5 billion in revenue. He left to join 10gen, the company behind the open-source MongoDB database. CMSWire listed him, as “the former lead product manager at Microsoft’s SQL Server team”, among the executives who made up 10gen’s leadership team. In a 2026 interview he said his team renamed the company from 10gen to MongoDB. He counts three database organisations in his career since 2000: Microsoft, MongoDB and the MariaDB Foundation. He has also worked at infrastructure and cloud companies in data-centre, device-management, billing and mobile software.

Virtuozzo describes a career that included roles at Parallels and at companies within Lumine Group, and board or advisory work for Code Climate, Kloog, Lightyear and Quicksave Interactive. It says he has led four technology companies as chief executive and contributed to twelve exits. The company did not name the four companies, and this profile does not attempt to identify them.

Virtuozzo, which traces its origins to Parallels, makes software for running infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service offerings on a provider’s own hardware and under its own brand. It markets itself as an alternative to VMware and the hyperscale clouds. Virtuozzo announced Daniel as CEO on 4 February 2026. Serg Bell, who had been CEO, remained founder, chairman and chief constructor. Daniel said coming back after 15 years brought his career “full-circle”. He said the task was to bring the company’s products together into a more unified platform that “reduces complexity, improves economics, and supports long-term growth” for service providers and software vendors.

Two months later the MariaDB Foundation, the non-profit that stewards the open-source MariaDB database, added him to its board. In the interview accompanying that announcement he pointed to enabling AI, database-as-a-service and data sovereignty as the issues his customers raise most often.

Education

No education record was found in any primary source.