Paul Flessner
Senior Vice President, Server Applications
Published: March 1, 2003 | Updated: August 1, 2006
As senior vice president of the Data Storage and Platform Division at Microsoft Corp., Paul Flessner leads an integrated product team that delivers application platform products as part of the Microsoft Server and Tools Business. Flessner’s key product responsibilities include Microsoft SQL Server, the company’s solution for enterprise data management and analysis, as well as Microsoft cluster, file and systems storage technologies.
A former IT manager himself, Flessner has been instrumental in developing Microsoft’s server platform vision and enterprise strategy. His passion for addressing the challenges of Microsoft’s business and enterprise customers and helping them achieve greater business agility has been key in evolving Microsoft server software and establishing it as the leading platform for cost-effective delivery of business value in the enterprise.
Flessner joined Microsoft in 1994 as a program manager for enterprise computing. Later promoted to general manager and eventually vice president for SQL Server, he was instrumental in driving Microsoft’s breakthroughs in performance, scalability and reliability for the enterprise database market. After the release of SQL Server 7.0 and later SQL Server 2000, which established Microsoft as a world-class player in the database category, Flessner was promoted to senior vice president and assumed responsibility for all enterprise server software products. Flessner has most recently led the SQL Server 2005 development effort and focused on delivering Microsoft’s Data Platform vision, which spans devices, workgroups and servers all the way up to the most mission-critical enterprise environments.
Before coming to Microsoft, Flessner spent 13 years developing and managing IT systems for a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of healthcare products. Flessner is a graduate of Illinois State University with a degree in computer science and business administration. He serves on the board of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and lives in Sammamish, Wash., with his wife, Sue, and their two sons, Andy and Jonathan.
