Founder Profile
Alan Shugart
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Alan Shugart?
Alan Shugart is a founder of Seagate Technology Holdings plc, which was founded in 1979 with Finis Conner, Doug Mahon, Syed Iftikar and Tom Mitchell.
- Company founded
- Seagate Technology Holdings plc
- Founded
- 1979
- Co-founders
- Finis Conner, Doug Mahon, Syed Iftikar and Tom Mitchell
Background
Engineer who spent years at IBM working on disk storage and later founded Shugart Associates, an early floppy-drive maker, before starting Seagate.
Founding Story
Alan Shugart co-founded Shugart Technology in 1979, renamed Seagate Technology after a trademark objection from Xerox, which owned Shugart Associates. Seagate's ST-506 of 1980 was the first 5.25-inch hard drive for microcomputers. Shugart led Seagate as chief executive until 1998 and died in 2006.
Alan Shugart was born in 1930 in Los Angeles. Education: University of Redlands.