William "Bill" T. Coleman III
Bill Coleman is founding donor of the University of Colorado's Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities and the founder, chairman and CEO of Cassatt, Inc. (www.cassatt.com), an enterprise infrastructure software company located in San Jose, California. He also co-founded BEA Systems, Inc. with Ed Scott and Alfred Chuang in 1995. He was chairman and CEO of the company from its founding until 2001, during which time it became the fastest software company ever to reach $1B in annual revenue. Prior to BEA, he held various management positions at Sun Microsystems, Inc., including: co-founder of Sun's Federal Division; founder, vice president and general manager of Sun Professional Services; and vice president of system software overseeing Sun's software development including SunOS and the creation of Solaris the leading Unix Operating System.
Before his work at Sun, Coleman co-founded and was vice president of engineering at Dest Systems. Prior to that, he held positions as director of product development at VisiCorp and as manager of the high frequency systems group at GTE Sylvania. Coleman began his career in the U.S. Air Force as chief of satellite operations in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. He has a BA in computer science from the U.S. Air Force Academy, an MA in computer science and computer engineering from Stanford University, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Colorado.
Coleman is president of the Coleman Colorado Foundation which supports the University of Colorado Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities. He sits on the board of directors of Symantec Corporation and Palm, Inc. and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and is a commissioner of the Trilateral Commission. Ernst & Young named Bill Coleman their 2001 "Entrepreneur of the Year," and Business Week named him one of 2001's ebiz 25 top executives.
Claudia Coleman
Founding donor of the University of Colorado's Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, Claudia Coleman began her technology career when she joined Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 1971, initially in an administrative position. Her career grew rapidly as HP rose to prominence in the emerging computer industry and she was promoted to district manager, responsible for helping build HP's sales channel for printers and computer peripherals. Her sales career was highlighted by her selection to HP's prestigious President's Club in 1986. Before leaving HP in 1992, Claudia Coleman was promoted to Americas Peripherals Marketing Center manager in the company's multibillion-dollar Computer Peripherals Organization.
For most of the past decade, her energy has been focused on various volunteer, charitable, and philanthropic activities, including the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities at the University of Colorado. In 2001, she was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Colorado. She is a past member of the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities where she served as chairperson of the Assistive Technology Subcommittee.