David Duffield

American billionaire
the sports commentator

David Arthur Duffield (born 21 September 1940) is an American billionaire businessman in the software industry. He is the co founder and former chairman of PeopleSoft, co founder and CEO emeritus of Workday, Inc., and current founder and co CEO of Ridgeline, Inc. He has been on the Forbes World's Richest People list for many years. Duffield co founded two publicly traded enterprise software companies after age 40: PeopleSoft and Workday. He has given $303 million to companion animal welfare causes and organizations; $61 million to his alma mater Cornell University; over $100 million to expand other educational institutions close to him and his family; $13 million to local first responders and community organizations; and $2.1 million to veterans affairs. His current philanthropic interests are managed by the Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation. Their capstone project is Liberty Dogs, a service dog training campus in Reno, Nevada, that will match and train disabled military veterans and canine companions. This facility is planned to open in 2026.

Raised in Ho Ho Kus, New Jersey, Duffield graduated in 1958 from Ridgewood High School in nearby Ridgewood, where he was co captain of the baseball team. Duffield received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from Cornell University, and is the benefactor behind Cornell's Duffield Hall, a nanoscale science (or nanotechnology) and engineering facility at Cornell. While at Cornell, Duffield was a member of Beta Theta Pi.

In 1964, Duffield began his career as a marketing representative and systems engineer at IBM. He left IBM to found Information Associates, which developed university exam scheduling software. In 1972, he left to start Integral Systems, which eventually became the top higher education human resources management system vendor. In 1979, he moved on to start Business Software Corporation, which provided real time human resources and payroll applications for commercial enterprises.

Duffield founded PeopleSoft in 1987 and served as the company's CEO and board chairman. PeopleSoft grew to be the world's second largest application software company before being acquired by Oracle in January 2005 for $10.7 billion cash.

In March 2005, Duffield and former PeopleSoft vice chair and head of product strategy Aneel Bhusri started Workday, Inc., a company that provides financial management, human capital management, and planning software delivered in the form of a software as a service (SaaS) model. The company is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, and employs more than 17,500 people today. Duffield was known as the company's chief customer and employee advocate. He relinquished the co CEO role in May 2014 and became chairman of the board. He resigned as chairman in April 2021 and was appointed chairman emeritus and ultimately CEO emeritus by Workday’s board.

Duffield founded his sixth and current company, Ridgeline, in 2017. Headquartered in Incline Village, Nevada, Ridgeline is an industry cloud software platform for investment management. The early stage company currently employs approximately 400 people in offices in Incline Village, Reno, New York City, and San Ramon, California.

In 1994, Duffield and his wife Cheryl established Maddie's Fund, to bring change, collaboration, and innovation to the animal welfare industry. This organization is named after the Duffields’ Miniature Schnauzer who was a "lighthouse during the stormy period" of the couple's work careers. In response to the 2021 Lake Tahoe forest fires, the foundation donated $4 million to over 30 charities, including $2 million to the Red Cross. Additionally, DCDF pledged $10.6 million to schools serving Hohokus, New Jersey, where he grew up. The Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation is currently financing the construction and development of Liberty Dogs in Reno, Nevada. This campus is planned to open in 2026. The goal is to provide disabled veterans with the ability to lead more independent and fulfilling lives through the enhanced emotional and psychological well being that research shows a Liberty Service Dog provides. Most recently, DCDF pledged $2 million to Maui Humane for fire relief efforts.

The Duffields have pledged more than $68 million to Dave's alma mater, Cornell University. In January 1997, they donated $20 million in support of interdisciplinary engineering and scientific research and education. The new Engineering building was later renamed “Duffield Hall.”

In July 2020, the Duffields donated $5 million to establish the Duffield Family Cornell Promise Scholarship. The gift was the largest single gift to the Cornell Promise Initiative, which provides financial support to students and families facing hardship from the pandemic. In early 2022, the Duffields also pledged $12.1 million to launch the new Duffield Institute for Animal Behavior at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Together with his spouse, Duffield contributed $1.2million to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.

David Duffield is married to Cheryl Duffield. Between 2005 and 2016 they lived in Alamo, California but now live near Lake Tahoe.