Founder Profile
Dave Duffield
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Dave Duffield?
Dave Duffield is a founder of Workday, Inc., which was founded in 2005 with Aneel Bhusri.
- Company founded
- Workday, Inc.
- Founded
- 2005
- Co-founders
- Aneel Bhusri
Background
Duffield earned an engineering degree and an MBA from Cornell University, worked at IBM, and founded several software companies before starting PeopleSoft in 1987.
Founding Story
Dave Duffield founded PeopleSoft, which grew into a major HR and ERP software vendor before Oracle acquired it through a hostile takeover completed in early 2005. He then co-founded Workday with Aneel Bhusri and served as co-CEO with Bhusri until 2014, later remaining on the board as chairman before stepping back from the company.