VMware’s CTO Steve Herrod is leaving VMware – the company he has been with for more than 11 years – to take on a new role with venture capital firm General Catalyst that will shift his focus to the fostering of talent.

“My primary focus will be finding, supporting and developing great technical entrepreneurs as they build the products and companies that they’ve always dreamt of building,” Herrod, who take on the position of general manager, said.

Herrod, who has been behind a number of major products launches at VMware including its recent  software-defined data center push, said he will still work with the company as a technical advisor.

In his role at VMware, Herrod said he has seen virtualization become the default technology for a majority of server applications.

“What’s more, virtualization’s impact is rapidly extending into storage, networking, security and every other aspect of the modern data center,” Herrod said in a blog post announcing his exit.

“The resulting software-defined data center is clearly the architecture of the future, enabling the efficient private, public and hybrid clouds that are becoming part of every company’s IT strategy.”

Herrod said he has also witnessed a “renaissance” in how applications are consumed.

“Throw in dramatic changes in the way we write applications, analyse massive amounts of data, share files or communicate with one another rand you can understand why I’m so excited about today’s technology world,” he said.

Herrod’s exit will be seen as a significant loss for VMware, as he also has the title of SVP of R&D, which has seen him work closely with VMware’s engineering teams.

“Steve provides particular leadership around technology collaborations between VMware engineering and our partners and customers,” VMware  said.

“He plays an integral role in VMware’s acquisition strategy as well as in VMware’s strategic partnerships. Recent focus areas have centered on the acquisition of SpringSource as well as our partnerships with Salesforce.com and Google.”

Before joining VMware Herrod co-led the development of a virtual CPU with Code Morphing technology at Transmeta Corporation, using skills received from a Ph.D and Master’s degree in Computer Science received from Stanford University and a BA at University of Texas.

General Catalyst was formed in 2000 by a group of managing directors with an entrepreneurial background.

Based in Cambridge Massachusetts and Palo Alto, California, the group has affiliations with the Advanced Energy Economy, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Starlabs among other groups.

The group has supported innovators in a range of areas including actress Jessica Alba, who started her own company focussed on non-toxic eco-0friendly household products called the Honest Company, Jeremy Allaire, the founder of online video platform Brightcove, John Coady, the founder of interactive mobile media company Quickplay and Paul English, the founder of travel search company Kayak.

The entrepreneurs that lead the private equity firm include Larry Bohn, the founder of analytic software company NetGenesis, ex Time Warner managing director Neil Sequeira, National Leisure Group co-founders David Fialkow and Joel Cutler.

General Catalyst said it currently has US$2.2bn of committed capital across six funds and focuses on companies that will have revenue of more than US$10m that exhibit high growth.