Seagate Announces the Retirement of Michael R. Cannon, Lead Independent Director, After a 40 Year History in the Disk Drive Industry

Seagate Technology Holdings plc, an innovator of mass-capacity storage, announced that Mike Cannon, lead independent director, has informed the company of his decision to retire from Seagate’s Board of Directors at the conclusion of his current term in October 2026.

Cannon has served on the Board since February 2011, including 5 years as Lead Independent Director and 5 years as Board Chair.

“It has been an honor to have served on the Seagate Board of Directors for the past 15 years, and in the disk drive industry before then,” said Cannon. “I am very proud of Seagate’s unwavering commitment to address the dramatically growing needs for storage, through the company’s relentless focus on technology advancement and operational excellence. I have every confidence that Seagate has the foundations built to further increase its relevance in storage well through the next decade.”

“Seagate and the disk drive industry have greatly benefited from Mike’s deep knowledge, operational expertise, and unwavering commitment to excellence,” said Dave Mosley, chair and CEO, Seagate. “Mike’s leadership and counsel have been instrumental in guiding Seagate through transformational changes and strategic growth. We are deeply grateful for his many contributions to Seagate’s success and wish him the best in his retirement.”

Mike’s Path and History in the Industry
Mike Cannon studied mechanical engineering at Michigan State University (“MSU”) while working full time at the General Motors assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan. On leaving MSU he joined the Boeing Company in Seattle, Washington in 1975 in the Manufacturing Research and Development organization supporting all commercial airplane programs and also the Chinook helicopter and air-launched cruise missile programs. He was selected by Boeing for an Inventor of the Year award in 1983.

In 1985 Mike joined the Control Data Corporation’s Magnetic Media Division as the Director of Automation and later was responsible for media development and manufacturing for all HDD drives (3 1/2″, 5 1/4″, 8″ and 14″ disk packs), 1/2″ magnetic tape reels for mainframe computers, and also 5 1/4″ and 8″ floppy disks. He was later responsible for Far East Operations for Control Data residing in Singapore, establishing disk drive manufacturing sites, international procurement offices, and supply chain sources throughout the region. During his tenure at Control Data, Mike completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.

He was hired by IBM’s Storage Systems Division in 1992 as a Vice president to lead the desktop and mobile disk drive businesses responsible for product development, manufacturing and sales, which returned to profitability in 2 years.

He was hired in 1996 as the CEO of Maxtor Corporation, a disk drive and storage systems company, and led its successful IPO in 1998. He went on to serve as Maxtor’s CEO for seven years until its acquisition by Seagate.