Early Life
Frederic Luddy was born in Hammond, Indiana, in 1954. His father was an accountant and his mother was a Catholic school teacher. Luddy's early life was marked by challenges, including a difficult relationship with his parents. Despite these hardships, Luddy developed a strong interest in computer programming, which would shape his future.
Rise to Success
Luddy's career began with his passion for programming. He attended Indiana University but dropped out to focus on his growing interest. He later worked at Amdahl Corporation and co-founded Enterprise Software. Before founding ServiceNow, Luddy served as Chief Technology Officer at Peregrine Systems. A significant setback occurred in 2004 when accounting fraud at Peregrine Systems led to the loss of his $35 million net worth.
Key Business Strategies
Undeterred by this setback, Luddy founded ServiceNow in 2004, two weeks before his 50th birthday. The company, initially a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for IT service management, quickly evolved into a leader in cloud computing and workflow automation. Luddy stepped down as CEO in 2011 to focus on product development and moved to an advisory role in 2016. His strategic vision and ability to identify market opportunities propelled ServiceNow to become a Fortune 500 company.
Philanthropy
Luddy's philanthropic efforts include a significant donation that led to the naming of the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington, where he also received an honorary doctorate. The school further includes the Luddy Center for Artificial Intelligence.
