Michael Dell

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dell Technologies

Last Reviewed: October 3, 2026

Executive Summary

Michael Dell founded Dell in 1984, at 19 and with $1,000 by the company’s account, and has run it for most of the four decades since; he is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dell Technologies, which sells PCs, servers, storage and networking to consumers, businesses and governments and now builds the data-center systems behind AI workloads. He took the company private in 2013, assembled the 2016 combination of Dell, EMC and VMware, and returned it to the public markets in 2018. Outside the company he set up an investment firm in 1998 and a family foundation in 1999. What stands out is how much of Dell’s shape is still his: few founders of a company this size have taken it private, re-engineered it through the largest technology deal of its time and listed it again.

Career Highlights

• Founded Dell in 1984 and has led it as CEO for all but 2004 to 2007.
• Took Dell private in 2013 and combined it with EMC and VMware in 2016.
• Returned Dell Technologies to public markets in 2018.
• Chaired VMware from 2016 until its 2023 sale to Broadcom.
• Formed MSD Capital (now DFO Management) in 1998 and a family foundation in 1999.

Professional Journey

Dell started the company in 1984 in a University of Texas dorm room, according to the 2026 proxy, and his company biography says he did it at 19 with $1,000. He was chief executive of Dell Inc. from its founding until July 2004 and resumed the role in January 2007. In 1992, by Dell’s account, he became the youngest chief executive to earn a ranking on the Fortune 500.

The biggest moves of his later career reshaped the company’s structure. Dell went private in 2013, and in 2016 he combined Dell with EMC and VMware, which the company describes as the largest technology deal in history. Dell Technologies relisted on the public markets in 2018. Along the way he chaired VMware from September 2016 until Broadcom acquired it in November 2023, and was non-executive chairman of SecureWorks from December 2015 until Sophos acquired it in February 2025.

Today Dell Technologies, headquartered in Round Rock, Texas since 1994, sells client devices through its Client Solutions Group and servers, storage and networking through its Infrastructure Solutions Group, a business increasingly driven by AI systems. His vice chairman and chief operating officer, Jeff Clarke, runs day-to-day operations; the finance, legal, people, marketing and sales functions are led by long-serving Dell and EMC executives.

Outside the company, Dell formed MSD Capital, now DFO Management, in 1998 to manage his family’s capital, and in 1999 established the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. In 2025 the couple committed $6.25 billion through their charitable vehicles to fund investment accounts for 25 million young Americans, according to his Dell biography. He is a member of the Business Roundtable and the Technology CEO Council, an honorary Foundation Board member of the World Economic Forum, a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and the author of two books, Direct from Dell and Play Nice But Win.

Education

No education is established in the sources read for this profile, so the field is left empty rather than estimated.