Oral history interview with Gideon I. Gartner

Abstract

This interview is with entrepreneur and corporate leader Gideon Gartner, the founder of Gartner Group, Inc.—a pioneering firm in information technology assessment and advisory services. The interview briefly discusses his early life and education (which included a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a Master’s from MIT’s Sloan School of Management), before focusing on his founding and leadership of Gartner Group (later renamed Gartner, Inc.). After MIT, Gartner began a successful career at IBM, focused on research and market management, before shifting to Wall Street and joining and becoming a Partner at Oppenheimer & Company. Leaving Oppenheimer, he launched Gartner Group in 1979 (where he was President, CEO, and Chairman until the early 1990s)—a company that revolutionized IT advisory and investment services with deeply-researched, concise (one-sheet) reports (among other innovations). He also discusses his teaching at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. In the mid-1990s Gartner launched another fast-growing, important company, GiGa Information Group. This, too, focused on IT assessment and advisory services.