Donna Dubinsky ’77

Donna Dubinsky has worked in technology for decades. She joined Apple Computer in 1981 after earning her MBA from Harvard University. She spent ten years in a variety of sales, sales support, and logistics functions both at Apple and its software subsidiary, Claris. After a year’s sabbatical in France, she joined Jeff Hawkins in 1992, shortly after he founded Palm Computing. As president and CEO of Palm, Dubinsky helped create a major new industry segment based on the phenomenally successful PalmPilot. In 1998, Hawkins and Dubinsky left Palm to co-found Handspring. Handspring became a leader in the emerging field of smartphones, where it again created a category-defining product, the Treo. In 2005, Dubinsky co-founded Numenta, Inc., a company that is developing AI technology modeled after the human neocortex and where she continues to serve as board chair. From May 2022 through September 2023, Dubinsky worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce as Senior Counselor to the Secretary where she focused on implementing the recently passed CHIPS Act.

At Yale, Donna Dubinsky has served on her class’s 30th, 35th, and 40th reunion gift committees, the Yale Development Council, and the Yale Tomorrow Executive Committee. She has also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Digital Yale, the University Council, and as a trustee of the Yale Corporation, including two years as senior trustee. Dubinsky is a director of Twilio Corporation and a trustee of Natcast.