John Monroe, Research Vice President, Storage Group, Gartner

Mr. Monroe is a research vice president in the Storage Group at Gartner. He is responsible for tracking all aspects of the hard disk drive industry, including technology and market trends as well as financial results. Mr. Monroe has established a reputation as an eloquent, imaginative industry spokesperson, has been quoted in many newspapers and magazines, including Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and has been an invited speaker at conferences in Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China, France and the United States.

Mr. Monroe has been involved with disk drive sales, product management and market analysis for more than 25 years. Unlike many analysts, Mr. Monroe has had extensive experience as a business line manager, responsible for the profitable purchase and resale of disk and tape products. Prior to joining Gartner in October 1997, Mr. Monroe spent seven years as vice president of storage products at SYNNEX Information Technologies (where, among other duties, he coordinated the flow of more than two million hard disk drives per year), two years as director of North American sales and marketing for Kalok Corporation, five years as vice president of OEM products and sales for Media Winchester Ltd., and three years as a general manager at Electrolabs, a small distribution company, where he began his electronics career in 1980 by selling hybrid ICs and 8-inch floppy disk drives.

Mr. Monroe earned a bachelor’s degree Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1976 and also earned a master's degree in fine arts with honors from Columbia University in 1980.