Page 56 - Forbes - Asia (June 2018)
P. 56

GLOBAL 2OOO
























          TECH’S ULTIMATE





                     SECOND ACT







             Facing 50, Fred Luddy lost his job and his fortune. But in applying

            the lessons of his failures, he made ServiceNow the most innovative
                 company in America—and himself a late-career billionaire.


                              BY KATHLEEN CHAYKOWSKI AND MARK COATNEY

                         egas being Vegas, fans have crammed the Venetian Hotel for selfi es with
                         a graying celebrity working his way through the scrum: Fred Luddy, the
                         63-year-old founder of ServiceNow, America’s hottest IT-services com-
                         pany. Neither Wayne Newton nor Celine Dion, Siegfried nor Roy, has
             Vanything on Luddy in Sin City this day, at least among the 18,000 cus-
             tomers, vendors and employees in town for Knowledge, ServiceNow’s annual devel-
             opers conference.
                “When all of these people are happy to see you, honestly you feel like a rock star,” says the spar-
             kly-eyed Luddy, having booked extra time between appearances to grip-and-grin with the adoring
             hordes. “It’s kind of an undeserved feeling, because they were the inspiration. You folks had all of
             the ideas. I just wrote them down and thought about them.”
                Forgive Luddy such indulgences. Fourteen years ago, he was pretty much broke, having seen
             a $35 million personal fortune vanish overnight in the midst of accounting fraud at his previous
                                                                                                Fred Luddy at his
             company. hirteen years ago he was a one-man shop, tinkering with ServiceNow’s core product   beachfront home in Del

             from his home. Even ater the vindication of an IPO six years ago, the company was worth a mod-  Mar, California. Success

                                                                                                has meant more time to
             est $2 billion.                                                                    spend with his 10-year-
                                                                                           ETHAN PINES FOR FORBES
                hese days ServiceNow, of Santa Clara, California, maintains a $30 billion market cap, has   old son and to work on

             6,000-plus employees—and is ranked 1,640 on the Global 2000 list. Its more than 4,000 customers   his next project: making
                                                                                                U.S. healthcare more
             include 850 of the Global 2000. Last year it had revenues of $1.93 billion, and growth is expected   a ordable and ei  cient.

             54     |     FORBES ASIA     JUNE 2018
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