Gregory GreenstreetWhy did you choose to study computer science?

I fell into programming with BASIC in high school when bored in a calculus class and loved it.

Who or what had a strong effect on your interest or trajectory in computer science?

Meeting people like Martin Fowler, Kent Beck, Joel Spolsky and Paul Graham.

What moments in your career have been most exciting or defining?

Growing startups from an idea through selling them to large public companies like Oracle and Twitter.

What moments in your personal life have been most exciting or defining?

The birth of my children (and every day since sharing the world with them).

What is your biggest career or life lesson to date?

Success in a software company is more about the culture and the people than the technology.

What is your current professional role? What is your favorite part of that role? 

 Senior director at Splunk. Building new teams and products that disrupt a market.

Are there any “words to live by,” credo or top values that you follow?

 "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." - His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

What advice would you give to current/future computer science students?

Focus on solving the key business problems for your customers and don’t get religious about the technologies used to do so.

What do you expect or hope to see in the next 50 years of computer science?

I deeply hope computer science in the next 50 years brings people together, rather than giving them a distractions from one another (e.g. mobile phones, gaming, etc.).