Parallels today announced the appointment of Betrand Serlet, former senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, to its board of directors.
Serlet will serve as a non-executive director, bringing to Parallels his distinctive professional experience of having led the development of Mac OS X from its inception until his departure from Apple in 2011. Serlet’s distinguished background and unique insights will help Parallels accelerate growth and continue creating software that simplifies life for consumers and businesses.
“Bertrand is the rare combination of a software visionary and master of execution. We’re thrilled to be bringing his world-class experience and expertise to Parallels as the company continues its fast-paced growth and global expansion,” said Birger Steen, CEO of Parallels, in the press release.
Serlet worked at Apple for 14 years, where he led the development and creation of OS X and was frequently a key speaker at Apple industry events. Serlet previously spent eight years with NeXT contributing to NeXTSTEP, OpenStep and WebObjects, and four years as researcher at Xerox PARC. Serlet holds a doctorate in computer science from the University of Orsay, France.
“With Parallels Desktop, Parallels became a critical developer for the Mac platform, and I got to know and appreciate the Parallels leadership team. I also discovered Parallels deep involvement with the cloud, represented by its rich portfolio of products. I look forward to drawing on my career at Apple to help guide Parallels as it continues on its impressive growth trajectory,” said Serlet in the press release.
The Parallels product portfolio addresses a wide range of consumer, small and medium business, enterprise and services provider needs. Parallels Desktop for Mac is the No. 1-selling software for running Windows and Mac applications side-by-side on a Mac without rebooting, and is used by more than 50 percent of the Fortune Global 200. The company’s cloud enablement software is used by more than 9,000 service providers who rely on Parallels to deliver thousands of applications and cloud services to more than 10 million SMBs in more than 130 countries.
Source: Parallels Holdings Ltd.
Related articles:
Bertrand Serlet, the man behind Mac OS X working on mystery startup with other ex-Apple employees – June 29, 2012
The amazing true story of Project Marklar; how Mac OS X for Intel was born – June 10, 2012
Apple’s changing of the Mac OS X guard – March 23, 2011
Bertrand Serlet to leave Apple – March 23, 2011
We will really miss him on the Mac. He was a visionary and we owe him so much gratitude.
His work on OS X is the backbone behind the greatest products ever produced in the electronics and computer industry.
agreed.
What better place for him to be than lending his expertise to VMs?
Bertrand is a personal hero of mine; he possesses such a calm, calculated approach to everything he does.
Good luck Bertrand!!!
Should we expect right-wing panic: “Oh my god, another one sold his soul to those damn Russians”?
Betrand is a brilliant guy and his contribution to OS X was large but I get tired of all this revisionist history crap.
Betrand worked under Avie Tevanian who led the creation of both NextStep and OSX (Avie was the VP of Apple Software and eventually CSTO until he left Apple in 2006 when Bertrand took over as head of software.)
(I think Tiger was the last version developed under Avie’s leadership)
I am not trying to minimize Bertand, again he is brilliant and his contributions to Apple large, but this is a little like naming one of Ive’s lieutenants and claiming he was responsible for the design of the Mac (or the iPad)
While I am sure there were LOTS of people working on the design, the man in charge, -Jonathan Ive- was the man responsible for the design.
Just sayin’