William D. Watkins is the former chief executive officer of Seagate Technology, the world's largest manufacturer of hard drives. Watkins was appointed as the company's CEO in 2004 and served in this position until January 2009. He was appointed as CEO of BridgeLux, an emerging solid state lighting company in Silicon Valley, in January 2010. Between June 2000 and July 2004, Watkins served as president and chief operating officer and was responsible for Seagate's global hard disk drive operations. He was elected to Seagate's board of directors in 2004. Watkins joined Seagate in 1996 as part of the company's merger with Conner Peripherals. While at Conner, he established the Conner Disk Division and managed its success through the merger with Seagate. 

1953 in Venezuela