John L. Hennessy

John Leroy Hennessy (born September 22, 1952) is an American computer scientist, academician and businessman who serves as chairman of Alphabet Inc. Hennessy is one of the founders of MIPS Computer Systems Inc. as well as Atheros and served as the tenth President of Stanford University. Hennessy announced that he would step down in the summer of 2016. He was succeeded as president by Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Marc Andreessen called him "the godfather of Silicon Valley." Along with David Patterson, Hennessy was a recipient of the 2017 Turing Award for their work in developing the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, which is now used in 99% of new computer chips. Early life and education Hennessy was raised in Huntington, New York, as one of six children. His father was an aerospace engineer, and his mother was a teacher before raising her children. He is of Irish-Catholic descent, with some of his ancestors arriving in America during the potato famine in the 19th century. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University, and his master's degree and Doctor of Philosophy in computer science from Stony Brook University.