George Cacioppo Biography

Since 1978, George Cacioppo has been driving innovation throughout the software engineering and technology industry. While he hails from Suffolk County, New York and spent nearly 15 years of his life in the Northeast, Cacioppo now calls the West Coast his home. He resides in the San Diego, California area along with his family. Throughout his illustrious career, Cacioppo has been a visionary, driving innovation, continuous improvement, and — above all — results. He has consistently demonstrated excellence in developing, operating, and innovating in cloud-based, high-capacity consumer digital commerce, media, and gaming.

Software Engineer

Cacioppo began his career back in 1978 in Greenlawn, NY at Hazeltine Industrial Products Division as a Software Engineer. In this role, he wrote custom code for a variety of different software applications. After spending a total of four years as a Software Engineer, George Cacioppo joined Digital Equipment Corporation (USA) in April of 1982 as the Engineering Manager. He employed his extensive learnings from his previous role to effectively manage the delivery of font products for X-Windows-based workstation solutions. He also created multiple procedures and processes to qualify and release diverse video terminals as well as printing products containing complex software.

Vice President of Software Development at Adobe

Due to the experience gained from working with complex PostScript laser printers in a previous role, Cacioppo was named the Vice President of Software Development at Adobe for Postscript. From April 1992 through February 2004, Cacioppo helped mold strategy, product development, and account growth for PostScript. On the forefront of the Desktop Publishing Revolution, PostScript was released in 1984 as the first device-independent Page Description Language (PDL) as well as a programming language. During his tenure of over a decade at Adobe, Cacioppo actively helped evolve PostScript into a best-in-class RIP technology for commercial and office printing solutions. He actively managed the engineering for up to 40 global OEM accounts that generated more than $200 million in revenue. This entailed overseeing the specification, development, and delivery of key OEM software components with a hyper-focus on:

Critical schedule adherence,

Unwavering software functionality, and

Adobe's world-class quality control standards.

Cacioppo was also responsible for managing custom modifications required to meet customer demands and optimize time to market. As the head of an engineering organization, Cacioppo was tasked with the professional development and growth of 160 members. For almost 12 years, George Cacioppo:

Increased revenue from key accounts,

Grew base of accounts,

Improved product cycle times,

Bolstered predictability, and

Enhanced customer-centric culture.

Vice President of Engineering for PalmSource Holdings

In March of 2005, Cacioppo matriculated into the role of Vice President of Engineering at PalmSource Holding Co in Sunnyvale, California. Foraying into the quickly moving world of smartphones and mobile technology, Cacioppo made an immediate impact at PalmSource Holding. From the ground up, Cacioppo built a robust, dynamic engineering and product management team that supported the highly complex development of new products within the mobile industry. Specifically, he was responsible for the implementation of licensed cell phones, smartphones, and mobile devices. In a short three-year period, Cacioppo managed to:

Accelerate time to market for produce.

Increase adoption of Linux-based OS,

Create and deliver Linux- based embedded software based on Open Source,

And more.

Vice President of Software Engineering for TurboTax

Transforming how individuals and businesses file and plan for taxes, TurboTax is an Intuit Company. Cacioppo joined the TurboTax family in March of 2008 as the Vice President of Software Engineering. As an organizational leader, he was responsible for more than 250 product engineers and staff. He and his team were tasked with the development and operations of TurboTax Online as well as desktop products and solutions. Through his leadership, executive strategy, and vision, Cacioppo delivered more than $1.6B in revenue as well as:

Developed a modern data platform based on Big Data tech,

Increased the reliability of TurboTax and other online products, and

Focused on improving product and solution scalability.

Tapping into his expertise from Palm, Cacioppo oversaw the delivery of cutting-edge iPhone and tablet products, receiving 4.5-star ratings while acquiring digital native customers. Because of his clear focus on strategy, continuous improvement, and process enhancement, he drove multiple process reengineering projects designed to free up resources for new innovation and reinvestment. His dedication to excellence earned him the highly-coveted Intuit CEO Leadership Award in 2010.

Senior Vice President of Engineering for Sony PlayStation Network

When Cacioppo joined the PlayStation Network of Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2013, the current network was teetering. As the new Senior Vice President of Engineering, one of the first steps he took was to stabilize the network. He established both long-term and short-term strategic plans while hiring top talent to grow the engineering organization. These initiatives were instrumental in:

Attacking technology deficits,

Establishing robust monitoring,

Creating a nimble incident response team, and

Solving long-standing customer experience issues.

Cacioppo completely eliminated downtime for maintenance while improving all critical KPIs for issue resolution time, response time, and availability. Instead of staying with old, outdated data center infrastructures, George Cacioppo transitioned development to the cloud and implemented initiatives to increase employee adoption of the latest services and technologies. He also implemented, developed, and instituted a number of world-class, state-of-the-art innovations all focused on improving PlayStation Network performance and operations. And when the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world, Cacioppo's forward-thinking protocols properly positioned the PlayStation Network to meet the massive growth in demand due to stay-at-home orders. Cacioppo's exceptional leadership and visionary abilities earned him the Sony Group Technology Award of 2021.