Key Takeaways:
- Former Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman has amassed vast wealth as a non-founding executive in the tech industry.
- According to Bloomberg, his net worth stands at $3.7 billion, surpassing the wealth of both Tim Cook and Satya Nadella.
- Slootman is known for his militant CEO style and is associated with Silicon Valley’s conservative wing.
The recently departed CEO of Snowflake, a highly successful and outspoken tech executive, may not enjoy the same level of recognition as Apple’s Tim Cook or Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, but he boasts a greater fortune than both.
Frank Slootman, who recently retired as the CEO of Snowflake, a cloud-based data-warehousing company, has amassed an estimated wealth of $3.7 billion. This places him ahead of Tim Cook, whose net worth is around $2 billion, and Satya Nadella, who has not yet reached billionaire status, as reported by Bloomberg.
Slootman’s wealth accumulation stems from his leadership roles at three prominent companies: Snowflake, ServiceNow, and Data Domain. Notably, under his stewardship, Snowflake experienced a significant milestone with its public offering in 2020, which ranked among the largest tech IPOs of the year. The IPO raised $3.4 billion, valuing the company at $33.3 billion.
Originally from the Netherlands, Slootman immigrated to the United States in his twenties. He has garnered a reputation as a militant CEO within Silicon Valley’s conservative faction, alongside figures like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Palmer Luckey, as noted by Business Insider’s Katie Warren in 2021. Slootman’s approach eschews concepts such as diversity and political correctness in favor of a profit-centric ethos.
In 2021, Slootman issued an apology following remarks made in an interview where he expressed reluctance for diversity to supersede merit in hiring and promotion decisions. In a subsequent statement, he clarified that diversity and merit are not mutually exclusive and affirmed Snowflake’s commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Slootman also apologized to anyone who may have been offended by his comments.
While Slootman will continue to serve as Snowflake’s chair of the board, he has stepped down as CEO. He has been succeeded by Sridhar Ramaswamy, a former executive at Google specializing in advertising, who joined Snowflake in May. Ramaswamy has been instrumental in leading the company’s artificial intelligence strategy.