Benoît Dageville is a French-American self-made billionaire, the co-founder, and President of Technology at Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the giant of cloud data warehousing. His background is rooted in deep, specialized technology and database architecture. He spent years working at the ultimate powerhouse of traditional databases: Oracle Corporation.

While at Oracle, Dageville rose to the role of a data architect, gaining decades of experience in designing and optimizing massive relational database systems. However, he and his future co-founders recognized a fundamental flaw: the traditional database architecture was completely unsuited for the demands of modern cloud computing and massive, unstructured data. This realization, shared with his colleague Thierry Cruanes, inspired his revolutionary vision to quit the industry leader and build a completely new, cloud-native data platform from scratch.

Benoît Dageville, along with Thierry Cruanes and Marcin Żukowski, co-founded Snowflake Inc. in San Mateo, California, in 2012. The founding vision was radical: a cloud data warehouse that offered unlimited scalability, elastic performance, and a pay-as-you-go model—all revolutionary concepts that threatened the dominance of his former employer, Oracle.

Dageville, as the engineering brain, pioneered the unique architecture that separated computing and storage, a critical innovation. He famously said they had to “hide the revolution” to gain early customer trust, as the new architecture was so disruptive. He served as the company's President of Product and later President of Technology, guiding its growth. Snowflake successfully executed the largest software IPO in US history in 2020, securing Dageville's multi-billion dollar fortune. His leadership philosophy centers on simplicity, which he calls the “ultimate advantage in tech.”

Benoît Dageville’s social impact is structural, stemming from the technology that enables the democratization of data access and data-driven decision-making for enterprises globally. Snowflake’s platform allows organizations of all sizes to utilize massive datasets efficiently, driving innovation across health, finance, and industry.

His personal philanthropy often supports scientific education and the French-American technology ecosystem, leveraging his position to inspire the next generation of deep-tech engineers. His life story is a testament to the power of intellectual courage—quitting a stable, high-ranking job at an industry leader to bet on a revolutionary, academically challenging idea.

Benoît Dageville maintains the clean, minimalist, and highly intellectual style of a French-American tech president. His attire is consistently sharp casual—high-quality shirts, simple blazers, and professional, functional wear. His aesthetic reflects a focus on elegant engineering and product perfection.

Residing in California, his luxury is the financial security of his massive, publicly traded company and the intellectual freedom to continuously innovate in the complex world of data. His life is defined by the quest for efficiency and simplicity, commanding a global tech giant from a base rooted in deep-tech problem-solving.