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Oral History of Donna Dubinsky Part 2 of 2

Computer History Museum
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Interviewed by Marc Weber on 2023-05-30 in Mountain View, CA © Computer History Museum Donna Dubinsky has shaped the personal and mobile computing industries as a top executive at Claris, CEO at Palm Computing, and cofounder/CEO at Handspring and Numenta. In this oral history she tells her story and offers insights into her leadership philosophy and how to navigate the dangers and opportunities of emerging industries. Daughter of an entrepreneur in rural Michigan, Dubinsky majored in history at Yale University. She then worked for two years as a financial analyst and commercial lending officer at the Philadelphia National Bank, where she developed a keen understanding of business operations . This experience led her to Harvard Business School, where a demonstration of VisiCalc, a pioneering spreadsheet for personal computers, ignited her passion for technology. After graduating she joined Apple, quickly rising from a position as a customer su …...more
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Oral History of Donna Dubinsky Part 2 of 2
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317Views
Jan 282025
Interviewed by Marc Weber on 2023-05-30 in Mountain View, CA © Computer History Museum Donna Dubinsky has shaped the personal and mobile computing industries as a top executive at Claris, CEO at Palm Computing, and cofounder/CEO at Handspring and Numenta. In this oral history she tells her story and offers insights into her leadership philosophy and how to navigate the dangers and opportunities of emerging industries. Daughter of an entrepreneur in rural Michigan, Dubinsky majored in history at Yale University. She then worked for two years as a financial analyst and commercial lending officer at the Philadelphia National Bank, where she developed a keen understanding of business operations . This experience led her to Harvard Business School, where a demonstration of VisiCalc, a pioneering spreadsheet for personal computers, ignited her passion for technology. After graduating she joined Apple, quickly rising from a position as a customer support liaison to run part of the company’s distribution network. In 1986 she joined Claris, Apple’s new software subsidiary, to head international sales and marketing. Within four years her group was responsible for 50% of Claris' sales. But Dubinsky and many other senior managers left in 1991 when Apple went back on its promise to allow Claris to become an independent company. After a year’s sabbatical in France, she was hired as CEO of Palm Computing by founder Jeff Hawkins. After an unsuccessful product created in partnership with Casio and other companies, Hawkins and Dubinsky spearheaded the development of the pioneering PalmPilot. The enormous success of this device brought handheld computers, or personal digital assistants (PDAs) as they were called at the time, to the mass market. Unlike prior handhelds such as the Apple Newton, the PalmPilot was designed as an affordable, user-friendly accessory to a personal computer rather than a pricey partial replacement. The operating system and core applications – contacts, to-dos, calendar, and notes – were renowned for simplicity and good design, as well as easy syncing with a connected computer. Short on cash, Palm Computing was acquired by modem-maker U.S. Robotics which was in turn acquired by LAN pioneer 3Com. Unhappy with 3Com’s business strategy, in 1998 Dubinsky co-founded Handspring with Jeff Hawkins and Ed Colligan. Handspring launched the successful Visor PDA to compete with Palm and soon became a leader in the emerging smartphone category with the groundbreaking Treo smartphone, which integrated phone, email, and Web browsing capabilities with full Palm PDA functionality. Starting in 2003, the Treo 600 series established itself as an iconic brand. The bursting of the dot-com bubble had slowed Handspring’s growth, and in 2003 it merged with a Palm hardware division previously spun off from 3Com as an independent company. The resulting merger was called PalmOne, Inc., and later reverted to Palm Inc. At the same time as the merger, Palm spun off its operating system into an independent company called PalmSource, which later was bought by Japanese i-mode pioneer ACCESS. In 2005 Dubinsky and Hawkins left to form Numenta, Inc., with the goal of creating machine intelligence based on Hawkins’ neuroscience research. She served as CEO and remained board chair through 2024. In 2022, she was appointed as Senior Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, leading implementation of part of the CHIPS and Science Act which was created to bolster semiconductor research and manufacturing in the U.S. Dubinsky is a past trustee of the Computer History Museum.
  • Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collec...
Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/ for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection. Collection number: 102792867 Acquisition number: 2023.0053

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Computer History Museum

157K subscribers