Donna Dubinsky Resigning from Palm's Board

Donna Dubinsky, former Palm CEO and one of the original founders, is planning to resign from her seat on Palm's board of directors. Elevations recent additional $100 million equity deal also included the right for the investment group to appoint an additional director for election on Palm's Board.

Palms recent 8-K SEC filing on the matter, states that the board wishes to maintain its current size and Donna Dubinsky offered to resign immediately in advance of the election. The filing states that Ms. Dubinsky's offer to resign as a director was not the result of any disagreement.

In Donna's place, Elevation has nominated Rajiv Dutta for election to the Board. Mr. Dutta recently retired as the President of eBay Marketplaces and Executive Vice President of eBay Inc. in October 2008 and as a member of eBay's board of directors in July 2008.

Palm's Board is expected to meet shortly to consider Ms. Dubinsky's offer to resign and Mr. Dutta's election to the Board.

About Donna Dubinsky

Donna DubinskyFrom Palm's Board Committee bio:

Ms. Dubinsky was a co-founder of Handspring and the Chief Executive Officer and a director since the company's founding in July 1998. She served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Palm Computing, Inc. from June 1992 to July 1998. From 1982 to 1991, she was with Claris Corporation, a subsidiary of Apple Computer, Inc., and with Apple Computer, Inc., where she served in a number of logistics, sales and marketing positions, most recently as Vice President International of Claris from 1987 to January 1991. Ms Dubinsky is also a trustee of the Computer History Museum. She holds a B.A. degree in history from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Ms. Dubinsky currently serves as the CEO of Numenta, the company she co-founded with Jeff Hawkins in 2005 to commercialize his ideas on technology derived from Hawkins' research in neuroscience and brain theory.

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changing of the guard

bulls96 @ 2/3/2009 6:53:24 PM # Q
I am saddened by this news. THat leaves COlligan as the only remaining part of the "Trio" that made Palm.

Reply to this comment

Fare thee well, Queen of the Ringer Switch

freakout @ 2/3/2009 8:42:32 PM # Q
You'll be missed!

http://www.treocentral.com/content/Stories/616-1.htm

I was curious to how the idea of a ringer switch cameup, so I asked PalmOne, and Chris Cadwell, Director of Product Marketing, responded. As the story goes, Donna Dubinsky, the co-founder of Palm and Handspring, "hated having someone's PDA or cellphone ring or sound an alert during a meeting. It distracted her, and drove her up the wall." Donna's immediate solution to the problem was to enact a $1 fine whenever a phone or PDA went off.

It was under these condtions that Handspring engineers designed the Visorphone. During one design meeting, "Jeff Hawkins, [inventor of the Palm Pilot, Palm and Handspring co-founder], said he wanted a way to turn off the ringer and other sounds quickly, and a slider switch just seemed like the obvious idea. I do not remember who came up with the slider idea initially, it may have been Jeff himself, but honestly the team didn't realize that we were doing anything unique or different at the time - such was our inexperience with cell phones back then! It was just obvious to us that this was needed, so we did it. What really surprised us, I think, was realizing later that other cell phones didn't have this feature, and moreover, I continue to be surprised, given how useful that little switch is, that no company I know of has copied it!"

Cadwell ended, "So as far as I know we've never considered getting rid of it. Most of us use it often (even now that Donna isn't here anymore) and we do get lots of positive feedback from our customers about this feature."

Long live the ringer switch!


Reply to this comment

Good luck, Donna!

mikecane @ 2/4/2009 6:56:34 AM # Q
Without her, there probably wouldn't have been a PDA. She was the business side to Hawkins' hardware/designer side.

Now they will go on to conquer the field of intelligence algorithms.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
SeldomVisitor @ 2/4/2009 8:40:48 AM # Q
> ...Now they will go on to conquer the field of intelligence algorithms.

HA HA HA!

HA HA HA!

HA HA HA!

Oh, my sides hurt!

HA HA HA!

HA HA HA!

HA HA HA!

Snort!

Giggle.

Maybe they should read (for the first time?) some scholarly Computer Science work from, say, the 1970s first.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
PacManFoo @ 2/4/2009 9:52:38 AM # Q
"During a conference call today, Handspring CEO Donna Dubinsky said for the first time that her company will eventually stop making Visors and only make Treos. She said, 'We are a company that is transitioning out of the organizer business and into the communicator business.'"

And she pretty much killed off Handspring with this one announcement.

The last known classic PDA user.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
mikecane @ 2/4/2009 11:49:02 AM # Q
SV: Maybe you should just STFU most times. How about that?

RE: Good luck, Donna!
SeldomVisitor @ 2/4/2009 11:52:57 AM # Q
Maybe you should learn to keep your fingers away from a keyboard when you're WAY over your head technically.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
freakout @ 2/4/2009 1:38:05 PM # Q
And she pretty much killed off Handspring with this one announcement.

Nope, she just saw the writing on the wall.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
SeldomVisitor @ 2/4/2009 1:48:53 PM # Q
> ...Nope, she just saw the writing on the wall.

Maybe she did that again.

Like the CFO.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
freakout @ 2/4/2009 2:02:27 PM # Q
Maybe. Maybe she was just ready to move on after nearly twenty years served. Maybe she's actually living a double-life as a superhero and the demands on her time were too great. Maybe, maybe, maybe...
RE: Good luck, Donna!
SeldomVisitor @ 2/4/2009 2:09:10 PM # Q
Unlike with Hawkins, I have nothing but respect for Ms. Dubinsky - =she's= the real thing.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
CFreymarc @ 2/4/2009 4:52:25 PM # Q
Donna is a good exec. However, this brain chip company still has me scratching my head. How long has it been since the incorporation announcement and no product?
RE: Good luck, Donna!
SeldomVisitor @ 2/4/2009 5:05:30 PM # Q
The "company" is a (set of?) small office on, I think, the 3rd floor of a large building:

- http://tinyurl.com/numentabldg

She probably isn't dedicating a whole lot of time to it even though she's "CEO"; the type of work she'd have to do would be, like, fund raising at this point in time, right? Calling in (up?) her venture capital chums and shootin' the breeze. She can do that from Stanford.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
mikecane @ 2/4/2009 5:25:38 PM # Q
>>>Unlike with Hawkins, I have nothing but respect for Ms. Dubinsky - =she's= the real thing.

Yeah, and your contribution to humanity is ... what, exactly? Annoying snark on a website? Assjack.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
PacManFoo @ 2/4/2009 6:25:42 PM # Q
And she pretty much killed off Handspring with this one announcement.


Nope, she just saw the writing on the wall.

Guess you weren't around at the time. It did hurt Handspring quite a bit.

The last known classic PDA user.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
CFreymarc @ 2/4/2009 7:21:28 PM # Q
I have to second that. The Feb 2002 Handspring earnings call caused many Springboard distribution lines to pull product off the shelf leaving many developers with stock that no one wanted. Legally, since there was no signed contract between developers and Handspring, there was no legal liability. Jeff and Donna didn't show their face at a PalmSource developer conference for three years after that one.
RE: Good luck, Donna!
freakout @ 2/4/2009 9:00:17 PM # Q
I was around, albeit 16 years old and not in much of a position to buy expensive toys... not like nowadays, where I can happily blow hundreds on indulging what is essentially a hobby. :D Handspring were the ones who first got me interested in PDAs 'n stuff. The Visor Prism was a beauty.

The Springboard situation was certainly a poorly-managed disaster, but even then PDAs were clearly headed for the dustbin. They were smart to jump on the smartphone bandwagon - it's what got them re-acquired by Palm, after all, who themselves could see where things were headed.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
akalefty @ 2/5/2009 12:06:04 AM # Q
and your contribution to humanity is ... what, exactly? Annoying snark on a website? Assjack.

Considering the source, the irony is incredible.


RE: Good luck, Donna!
mikecane @ 2/5/2009 6:27:16 AM # Q
Up your meds. Until you can't type again. You're better that way. Really.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
hkklife @ 2/5/2009 7:44:08 AM # Q
Mike, I just put in my order for the EEE 1000HE. I fondled the keyboard at CES and it was a huge improvement over my 1000H and every othet netbook on the market IMO...and I'm not normally a chiclet key fan to begin with. The improved battery life PLUS a slightly faster/newer CPU & graphics chipset looks to make the HE a winning combination. The best netbook on the market just got better AND cheaper!

And the best part is I can drop in my RAM & HD upgrades from my 1000H without missing a beat. I predict 2010 (not '09) will be the year of the netbook!


Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?

RE: Good luck, Donna!
Gekko @ 2/5/2009 10:58:23 AM # Q

hkk - how much do you spend on tech per year? seems like a lot. or am i just a cheap bastard?

RE: Good luck, Donna!
abosco @ 2/5/2009 11:25:09 AM # Q
You've just a bastard.

-Bosco
m105 -> NX70v -> NX80v -> iPhone -> iPhone 3G
RE: Good luck, Donna!
abosco @ 2/5/2009 11:25:52 AM # Q
You're*

Damn it, now I'm going to start bitching for an edit feature.

-Bosco
m105 -> NX70v -> NX80v -> iPhone -> iPhone 3G

RE: Good luck, Donna!
SeldomVisitor @ 2/5/2009 11:35:02 AM # Q
> ...now I'm going to start bitching for an edit feature.

For a brief moment a week or three ago, there was a "MOD" icon up there near the poster name on all posts; I'd humbly suggest an Edit function is coming "Real Soon Now".

[also awhile back I was invited to participate in a beta of the new website but never got the followup email telling me how to do so!]

RE: Good luck, Donna!
twrock @ 2/5/2009 12:22:38 PM # Q
Damn it, now I'm going to start bitching for an edit feature.

Please don't. Most of the time the meaning of the typos is obvious enough. Personally, I find it annoying on sites where people are going back and editing content after the fact to change the meaning of what they said. It's the coward's way out, but if editing is available, it happens.

I suspect I'm in the minority on this one though. Whatever.


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

RE: Good luck, Donna!
mikecane @ 2/5/2009 2:23:15 PM # Q
Christ, you people are something else.

A simple Good Luck wish from me to Donna mutates into THIS!!

Well, I might as well mutate it further ...

hkk: Yeah, I want to molest that keyboard. The MacBook has like ESP for my fingertips. All the keys are were my fingers *want* to land.

Gekko: Enema of The Google State -
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/article.php/3801006/Googles-Business-Model-YOU-Are-the-Product.htm

RE: Good luck, Donna!
Gekko @ 2/5/2009 4:52:34 PM # Q

i dont want to be live tracked by anyone. i dont want anyone to know where i'm at and what im doing and what im buying. maybe the kids do - but i dont.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
Gekko @ 2/5/2009 4:55:03 PM # Q
RE: Good luck, Donna!
abosco @ 2/5/2009 5:32:42 PM # Q
Please don't. Most of the time the meaning of the typos is obvious enough. Personally, I find it annoying on sites where people are going back and editing content after the fact to change the meaning of what they said. It's the coward's way out, but if editing is available, it happens.

Could it be coded so that an edit feature is available up to 10 minutes after the original post? This site's comment board seems like a custom job, so I would imagine it's possible. That would seem like a reasonable compromise.

-Bosco
m105 -> NX70v -> NX80v -> iPhone -> iPhone 3G

RE: Good luck, Donna!
twrock @ 2/5/2009 6:32:34 PM # Q
^^ I like that.


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)
RE: Good luck, Donna!
SeldomVisitor @ 2/6/2009 5:49:03 AM # Q
I see no reason whatsoever to limit an editting capability.

If someone makes a poster-bashing reply to a post that needs editting, then the original poster changes the post, tough. A post "belongs" to the poster - let them edit it to their hearts content.

The poster-bashing poster can go back and change HIS post, too.


RE: Good luck, Donna!
twrock @ 2/6/2009 8:22:27 AM # Q
I see no reason whatsoever to limit an editting capability.

That doesn't surprise me. I don't doubt that you have already determined the "right" way of doing it, so there can be "no reason whatsoever" to even consider that there just might be some reason for limiting editing capability.


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)
RE: Good luck, Donna!
SeldomVisitor @ 2/6/2009 8:27:30 AM # Q
My apologies for voicing an opinion after you have voiced yours.

I'll be sure to try to not do that next time.


Sorry.


RE: Good luck, Donna!
Gekko @ 2/6/2009 9:21:31 AM # Q
RE: Good luck, Donna!
mikecane @ 2/6/2009 9:22:06 AM # Q
Yo, twrock! FILL the Comments with your opinions. That will shut him up, he just admitted!

Go tw!!

I think I will now celebrate with some ... pizza!

RE: Good luck, Donna!
Gekko @ 2/6/2009 9:40:43 AM # Q

PIC desperately needs a makeover. i just looked at a 7 year chart of technological advancement of PIC vs. PalmOS and, eerily, they look exactly alike. both flat lines.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
abosco @ 2/6/2009 10:27:37 AM # Q
If only he said he wouldn't talk after Mike voiced his opinions. SV would have to cease activity on the entire internet.

By the way, recessions blow. Finding a job after graduation has proved a more difficult task than using Versamail.

-Bosco
m105 -> NX70v -> NX80v -> iPhone -> iPhone 3G

RE: Good luck, Donna!
Gekko @ 2/6/2009 11:23:52 AM # Q

it's a cold, hard world out there.

RE: Good luck, Donna!
freakout @ 2/6/2009 2:56:09 PM # Q
^^ Hey, downsizing and layoffs don't have to be cold. Why, hilarious scenes like this could be playing out in offices around the globe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3alSEppGB8k

RE: Good luck, Donna!
twrock @ 2/6/2009 6:57:40 PM # Q
OK SV, let me try at least one more time (though at this point, I highly doubt it will be of any good whatsoever).

When someone voices an opinion that leaves the door open for further data and other opinions to still be considered, there is room for intelligent discussion. Abosco and I had such an interchange. And I quickly saw that his opinion was better than my own.

When someone states emphatically that there is "no reason whatsoever", they have demonstrated their closed mindedness. You have done that. I responded with sarcasm to that closed mind.

Whereas I am very willing to have discussions with people who demonstrate an openness to honest discussion, I have no patience for you at this point. I believe that you have an agenda, and you know exactly what you are doing, and you do it with intent. If I am wrong about that, then (1) I apologize for my attitude and my sarcasm, and (2) you need help.


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

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