Artifact Details

Title

Coleman, Ken oral history

Catalog Number

102740136

Type

Document

Description

A math major at Ohio State, Coleman came to the Bay area with the Air Force. Upon leaving the Air Force, Roy Clay at Hewlett-Packard hired him as a recruiter. His first job, 1972, was looking at 100 resumes per day for HP’s new computer division. Shortly, HP sent him to Northern Europe to set up a Human Resources group, then as 4th person at HP’s 3000 team.

Coleman describes work at HP, Activision and Silicon Graphics, and the evolution of his skillset from HR to legal to operations, becoming the Chief Administrative Officer of Silicon Graphics where he commissioned and oversaw the construction of the Computer History Museum’s headquarters building. He served first as CAO, then VP of Service, then VP of Sales, as SGI grew from $10 Million to $4 Billion in revenue. Coleman discusses SGI evolution and key contributions of players like Ramsey, McCracken, Clark, Baskett, and VC Kramlich.

Coleman, the Valley’s first black recruiter, discusses diversity in hiring at length; he now serves as Advisor to the Andreesen/Horowitz investment firm.

Date

2017-03-15

Contributor

Coleman, Ken, Interviewee
House, Charles, Interviewer

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Mountain View, CA

Extent

41 p.

Format

PDF

Category

Transcription

Subject

Hewlett-Packard; Activision; Silicon Graphics; Diversity; Crawford Beveridge; Doyle, John; Levy, Ken; Ramsey, Mike; Baskett, Forest; McCracken, Ed; Clark, Jim; Lauer, Gary; Kramlich, C. Richard

Collection Title

CHM Oral History Collection

Credit

Computer History Museum

Lot Number

X8129.2017

Related Records

102740137 Coleman, Ken oral history