Donna Dubinsky
9/25/26
Open Forum
12:00pm
Bio: Donna Dubinsky has been a leader in building companies in the computer business for over forty years. Dubinsky joined Apple Computer in 1981, spending ten years in a variety of sales, sales support and logistics functions both at Apple and as a co-founder at Claris, Apple’s software subsidiary. In 1992, she joined Jeff Hawkins shortly after he founded Palm Computing. As president and CEO of Palm, Dubinsky helped create a major new industry segment based on the PalmPilot. In 1998, Hawkins and Dubinsky co-founded Handspring. Handspring became a leader in the emerging category of smartphones, where it again created a category-defining product, the Treo. In 2005, Hawkins and Dubinsky co-founded Numenta to create AI software based on Hawkins’ theories in neuroscience. In 2022, Dubinsky worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce at the request of Secretary Gina Raimondo to lead the implementation of the CHIPS for America Act. She continued to work on the R&D part of the CHIPS Act outside of the government until late 2025.
Dubinsky formerly served as a trustee at Yale University, including two years as senior fellow and recently served as a co-chair of Yale’s $7B capital campaign. She currently serves as a board member at Twilio, Inc. (TWLO) and as the Foreperson of the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury. She holds a B.A. from Yale University in history, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.