"The Macintosh."
“Copper clad laminate.”
“Life sciences technology.”
“Facebook.”
“Airplanes and networks.”
These are the technologies that had the biggest effect on the lives of CHM’s five new trustees. Along with the stories explaining why they were chosen, these answers are unique, thoughtful, and highly attuned to outcomes and impacts, just like the individuals who offered them. CHM is honored that these accomplished professionals will be bringing their experience and expertise to help us advance our mission to decode technology for everyone to shape a better future. Let’s get to know them.
Andy Cunningham came to Silicon Valley in 1983 to work for marketing guru Regis McKenna and help Steve Jobs launch the Macintosh, which just happens to be the technology she believes had the biggest effect on her life. Andy is the founder and president of Cunningham Collective, a marketing, brand, and communication strategy firm dedicated to bringing innovations to market. Over the years, her firm has worked with product managers in a variety of tech sectors, and she’s clear that their focus on “better, cheaper, faster” technology doesn’t apply to CHM. Instead, the Museum’s mission to decode technology means figuring out what it means to society. With Andy as inspiration, CHM might, for example, explore how the powerful new technology the Macintosh put in the hands of creative individuals like her shaped their careers, experiences, and the world they lived in. CHM stories like these can help people understand the broader implications of the technology they use every day.
Read Andy’s bio.
“The technology with the biggest impact on my life was the technology that brought me to Silicon Valley from a tiny town in Northern California,” says Nancy Duarte. “My first job here was in sales for a distributor that sold the raw materials to make layers on printed circuit boards. So, I’d say copper clad laminate.” In three brief sentences, the founder and CEO of Duarte Inc, the largest communications firm in Silicon Valley, transforms an insulating plate into a compelling conclusion to a classic success story. It’s easy to see why she’s known as the “Storyteller of Silicon Valley” and how her method of incorporating story patterns into business communications has served the highest-performing brands and executives in the world. To move humanity forward, Duarte believes that we must reflect on the past, honoring its heroes and learning from their insights. She notes that innovators, engineers, and dreamers have redefined the world. We’re capturing their stories at CHM.
Read Nancy’s bio.
New CHM trustee Joe Hurd believes that innovations in technology related to health have saved countless lives. A technology executive and strategic advisor whose career has taken him around the world, he brings an all-encompassing vision of humanity to his life and work. Joe focuses on the “for everyone” in CHM’s mission to decode technology and believes that CHM can be a bridge to the entirety of society, beyond engineers and product managers. The Museum, he says, can and should tell stories that highlight tech’s impact on non-tech fields, like healthcare, education, voting and elections, housing and transportation, and also explore what it means for Latinx, or LGBTQ+, or Black people. Joe reminds us that tech innovations often have unintended consequences, like social media’s threats to civil liberties, or how paying online with a credit card is a great convenience until the database gets hacked. CHM is preparing people to make informed decisions about how they engage with technology.
Read Joe’s bio.
Facebook, despite all its perils, has allowed Sanjay Nair to stay in close touch with his family and friends throughout a career at Edelman that has included leadership positions in Singapore, China, the Western United States, and currently in Shanghai as Global Chair of Edelman’s Technology sector. For Sanjay, the ubiquity of technology in daily life and work throughout the world, means that technological citizenship is more important than ever. He believes that “Knowing how technology is evolving and influencing business, society, relationships, politics, productivity and trust is fundamental to meaningful human existence.” Coming to terms with tech’s influence means that a future of shared prosperity can only be reached by ensuring access and inclusiveness to technology. CHM shares stories that inform and inspire, nurturing the curiosity and continuous learning necessary to help everyone thrive in a digital world.
Read Sanjay’s bio.
Now executive chairman of cyber security firm Red Seal, Ray Rothrock says that airplanes and networks facilitated his long and successful career funding startups as a venture capitalist at Venrock. He explains, “Airplanes allowed me to travel to brilliant people in all places of the world to find the technology that would change the world.” Ray views the internet, what he calls the network, as a new kind of “real estate,” so cheap it is practically free, on which to build a whole new world. Today, he says, we’re like the first settlers in a new land. We’re living in the early days of a tech revolution where the greatest entrepreneurs can paint a picture of the future. Ray imagines that future as one in which technology serves humanity so well that it becomes a kind of appliance operating in the background, freeing people to focus on their relationships with other people rather than their technology. There couldn’t be a more perfect expression of CHM’s guiding vision: Humanity forward.
Read Ray’s bio.
