Greg Whitten
Image:Ferrari_1962_250_GTO_Red_on_Pebble_Beach_Tour_d%27Elegance_2011_-Moto@Club4AG.jpg|thumb|The #3413GT Ferrari 250 GTO was purchased by Whitten around 2000
Image:1964 Ferrari 250 LM.jpg|thumb|The #5907 Ferrari 250 LM was owned by Whitten 1994–2005.
Greg Whitten is an American computer engineer, investor and car collector.
Whitten graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in mathematics in 1973, and from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in applied mathematics in 1978.
He worked for Compucolor, a company in Georgia established in 1977 that made the home computer Compucolor II but went out of business in 1983. While there, he reputedly optimized an unlicensed copy of Microsoft Basic so effectively that Microsoft later forgave Compucolor for their infringement in exchange for the rights to the enhancements.
Microsoft 1979–1998
He then worked for Microsoft from 1979 to 1998. He developed the standards for the company's BASIC compiler line."GW" in the name of the GW-BASIC dialect of BASIC developed by Microsoft may have come from Greg Whitten's initials:
"The GW-BASIC name stands for Gee-Whiz BASIC. The GW- name was picked by Bill Gates. He is the one who knows whether it was Gee-Whiz or after me because it has been used both ways. I did set the directions for the BASIC language features after joining the company in 1979."
As a chief software architect, he also oversaw the development of the enterprise support systems required in Windows for the Microsoft Office.