Santa Clara University has hired veteran financial executive Wilson Garone as its vice president for finance and administration, starting May 30.

Garone has been vice president and chief financial officer at Seattle University since 2019, a role he began after a successful career at Microsoft where he oversaw the financial activities of the software giant’s largest division. He brings experience and success managing complex, large-scale businesses as well as a deep knowledge and appreciation for Jesuit higher education.

“Santa Clara is blessed to have found in Wilson Garone a strong, values-based leader with a distinguished record in both the technology sector and Jesuit higher education,” said Julie Sullivan, president of Santa Clara University. “His unique skills make him an ideal fit as we embark on our next strategic plan for the growth and future of our university.”

“I am delighted to join Santa Clara, a leading national university and Jesuit institution that shares my passion for sustainability and the pursuit of an ethical and humane world,” said Garone. “Service to others and diversity have been an integral part of my personal and professional life. I am honored to bring my skills—honed in technology and Jesuit higher education—to Santa Clara.”

At Seattle University, he transformed the long-range budget process to better align with the university’s five-year strategic direction; increased transparency through regular CFO forums and advisory committees; and introduced critical scenario planning during the pandemic. As part of his oversight of the university’s endowment, he implemented an outsourced CIO (Chief Investment Officer) model that outperformed the markets, and he improved finance processes, reports, efficiency, and analytical capabilities. He also implemented a vendor-diversity program to increase access by underrepresented vendors.

Before Seattle University, Garone spent two decades in various finance leadership positions at Microsoft, including as corporate vice president and divisional chief financial officer for sales, marketing, and service, as well as sponsoring Latinx employees at Microsoft as Executive Sponsor of the Hispanic Latinx Community. The first nine years of his career were spent at Eastman Kodak’s Southern Cone Subsidiaries in Brazil.

Garone also brings extensive experience executing on impact projects in his financial leadership roles, including creating education-focused finance community impact projects that were deployed in India, Kenya, Costa Rica and Malaysia, while he was at Microsoft.

Born and raised in Brazil, Garone has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. He attended the Harvard Business School Global Strategy executive program, and the Finance for Executives program at INSEAD in France. He completed numerous Microsoft leadership programs, including a strategy program led by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

He is a board member at Pet Partners, a non-profit organization with a mission to improve human health and well-being through the human-animal bond.

Garone is married to Gloria, a Microsoft group engineering manager and software development veteran, who grew up in Silicon Valley. He has two adult sons—Matheus, currently living in California, and Andre, who lives in Washington. Wilson and his sons are passionate about soccer and have attended several FIFA World Cup tournaments. Wilson and Gloria look forward to moving to the area, exploring new restaurants, and actively participating in the community.

About Santa Clara University

Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University sits in the heart of Silicon Valley—the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial region. The University’s stunningly landscaped 106-acre campus is home to the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís. Ranked among the top 15 percent of national universities by U.S. News & World Report, SCU has among the best four-year graduation rates in the nation and is rated by PayScale in the top 1 percent of universities with the highest-paid graduates. SCU has produced elite levels of Fulbright Scholars, as well as four Rhodes Scholars. With undergraduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, and graduate programs in six disciplines, the curriculum blends high-tech innovation with social consciousness grounded in the tradition of Jesuit, Catholic education. www.scu.edu.

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