The Computer History Museum (CHM), the leading institution exploring the transformational impact of computing on the world, announced today the inaugural appointments to its Board of Trustees Emeriti: Donna Dubinsky, former CEO of Palm and co-founder of Handspring and Numenta; and Bernard Peuto, president of Concord Consulting and chairman of PhotoTablet. Newly created to honor distinguished trustees instrumental to the founding and growth of the Museum, the Board of Trustees Emeriti proudly welcomes Dubinsky and Peuto for their respective 16-year and 17-year tenures on the Museum’s Board of Trustees and their distinguished leadership during their service.
Due to the efforts and dedication of the Museum’s early founders and supporters – many of whom have extended their support to the Museum by serving on its Board of Trustees – CHM has become a world-class institution with the largest collection of computing artifacts in the world and the most ambitious interpretive strategy to explain computing’s ongoing technological, economic and social impact. The recent launch of the Museum’s major exhibition “Make Software: Change the World!” alongside the opening of its Software History Center and Exponential Center are the results of a recent $30 million expansion into the important areas of software and entrepreneurship. Dubinsky and Peuto cultivated projects and spearheaded fundraising that were integral to the Museum’s past success, current expansion, and ongoing work.
“Donna and Bernard believed in the vision of CHM from day one. They put enormous time, talent and energy into making that vision a reality through their service as trustees and beyond,” said John Hollar, CEO and president of the Computer History Museum. “Their impact is fittingly honored by this emeritus designation.”
Dubinsky joined the Museum’s board in September 2000 and served with distinction in the areas of strategy and philanthropy. Her advocacy for the Museum inspired tens of millions of dollars in philanthropic support for the Museum’s major initiatives, including the $25 million acquisition of its Shoreline Boulevard campus in Mountain View, CA; the construction of CHM’s $20 million permanent exhibition, “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing”; and the acquisition of a state-of-the-art $6.2 million archival and collections facility, the Shustek Center, that houses the Museum’s extensive document and software collections and research facilities. Dubinsky stewarded new audiences and supporters into the Museum's community and passionately advocated for the Museum to explore the impact and future implications of computing alongside its history.
Prior to her tenure on the Museum’s board, Dubinsky partnered with Jeff Hawkins on the start up of Palm Inc., in 1992, where she served as president and CEO. In 1998 Dubinsky and Hawkins co-founded Handspring, creator of the Treo smartphone. When Handspring merged with Palm in 2003, Dubinsky re-joined the Palm board and continued to serve there until 2009. Previously, Dubinsky spent 10 years at Apple in a multitude of sales, sales support and logistics functions—both at Apple and at Claris, an Apple software subsidiary. Dubinsky holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She is currently the Senior Fellow of the Yale Corporation, Yale’s governing body.
Peuto joined the Museum’s board in November 1999 and served for 17 years as a trustee and member of the Museum’s executive and finance committees. Notably, he has been essential to the Museum’s current leadership in the history of software, specifically in the preservation and collection of historical software, oral histories and stories. In 2003 Peuto established and chaired the software collections committee and engaged community volunteers to collaborate in the Software Preservation Group, which has since evolved into the Museum’s new Software History Center. The Museum’s software conservation lab, used by curators and digital archivists to read and preserve historical formats of software, is named for Peuto. Peuto was also instrumental in advocating for the Museum’s acquisition of its main Shoreline Boulevard campus, CHM’s largest-ever capital acquisition. He has been a longstanding member of the Museum’s oral history steering committee and collections committee. In recent years, Peuto has been a key member in a project seeking to document the history of Minitel and has supported the Museum’s Internet History Program.
Peuto is president of Concord Consulting and chairman of PhotoTablet. He has held key positions at Sun Microsystems (vice president and general manager), ViewTech (founder, chairman and president), Zilog (director of product development and principal architect) and Amdahl (computer architect). At Zilog he was director of the Component Design Engineering Group and the principal architect for the Z8000, MMU, Z-Bus and the Z8 processors and concepts. Peuto is a member of the editorial board of Microprocessor Report. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, is a nonprofit organization with a four-decade history as the world’s leading institution exploring the history of computing and its ongoing impact on society. The Museum is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of computer history and is home to the largest international collection of computing artifacts in the world, encompassing computer hardware, software, documentation, ephemera, photographs, and moving images.
The Museum brings computer history to life through large-scale exhibits, an acclaimed speaker series, a dynamic website, docent-led tours, and an award-winning education program. The Museum’s signature exhibition is “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing,” described by USA Today as “the Valley’s answer to the Smithsonian.” “Make Software: Change the World,” opened in 2017, illustrates the impact of software on the world through the stories of seven iconic and widely used applications. Other current exhibits include the “Where To? A History of Autonomous Vehicles,” “Thinking Big: Ada, Countess of Lovelace,” “The Trillion-Dollar Startup,” and demonstration labs featuring fully restored and working models of the DEC PDP-1 and the IBM 1401 systems.
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