Ken W. Muir, a University of Utah alum and vice president of sales and business development for Micro Focus Software, recently received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the U’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was honored during the department’s annual Technical Open House Banquet.
Muir (pictured, right, with department chair Gianluca Lazzi) graduated with honors from the University of Utah in 1995 with B.S. degrees in both electrical and computer engineering. He serves on the university’s Engineering Industry Advisory Board and was recently appointed to the Engineering National Advisory Council. He is a 2010 PLD graduate of Harvard Business School.
Muir is a seasoned software executive with over 25 years of leadership experience. He holds three U.S. patents and is an expert in enterprise software specializing in information security, governance and compliance. His career successes include CEO of an international privately-held software company (acquired by Micro Focus in 2016), chief of staff and chief technology and strategy officer for a billion-dollar public company, and leading other large engineering organizations. Muir has participated in numerous industry panels and has been a keynote speaker at conferences around the world. He is currently the Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Business Development for Micro Focus, a Newbury, England-based enterprise software company.
He resides in Bountiful, Utah, with his family. His wife Kim holds a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Utah and is currently working on her Master of Social Work.
Past recipients of the department’s Distinguished Alumnus Award include former Novell CEO Ray Noorda, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and Mac Van Valkenburg, former head of electrical engineering at Princeton University.