Fred Luddy

Fred Luddy is the software engineer who founded ServiceNow in 2004, two weeks before his 50th birthday, starting with a single laptop after losing a $35 million fortune in the Peregrine Systems accounting fraud. Originally launched as Glidesoft, the company grew into a cloud workflow giant worth well over $100 billion. A self-taught programmer who dropped out of Indiana University, Luddy served as ServiceNow CEO until 2011, then steered product and an advisory role. He later gave $60 million to Indiana University, whose computing school now bears his name, and turned to philanthropy in rare childhood genetic disease and spreadsheet innovation.