Interview · Computer History Museum
Oral History of Don Listwin
A 2018 Computer History Museum interview chronicling Don’s journey from early networking engineering to leading Cisco growth, leading Openwave, and championing cancer detection through the Canary Foundation.
- Institution
- Computer History Museum
- Interviewer
- Chuck House
- Recorded
- August 22, 2018
- Running time
- 54:48
Episode summary
Six chapters of a builder’s career
The video captures six chapters of Don’s work—highlighting entrepreneurial risk, reinvention, leadership under pressure, and a patient focus on blending engineering with medical breakthroughs.
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Chapter 1: Early Life & Career Start
- Born in Saskatoon, Canada; earned an engineering degree before joining Develcon, a small networking firm.
- Moved to Silicon Valley during the Ethernet boom of the 1980s to pursue ambitious networking work.
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Chapter 2: Joining & Growing Cisco
- Joined Cisco in 1990 as employee #410, taking a 50% pay cut for the opportunity to help build the company.
- Worked with John Morgridge and John Chambers to establish product management rigor, network protocols, and strategic acquisitions.
- Helped shape Cisco’s business-unit structure, led the Access business, and grew revenue from hundreds of millions to multibillion-dollar lines.
- Instrumental in acquisitions like Crescendo Communications and Granite Systems, seeding Cisco’s switching dominance.
- Shares candid stories about the high-energy, frontier feel of early Cisco—from East Palo Alto offices to an uncompromising innovation culture.
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Chapter 3: CEO of Openwave
- Departed Cisco to lead Openwave (merger of Software.com and Phone.com) amid the dot-com surge.
- Navigated the collapse of the market, painful layoffs, and personal tragedy, reflecting on leadership resilience.
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Chapter 4: Founding the Canary Foundation
- Motivated by his mother’s misdiagnosed ovarian cancer, founded Canary Foundation to advance early cancer detection.
- Built multi-institution partnerships (Stanford, Cambridge, Calgary) pairing biology with engineering.
- Helped influence new standards of care for prostate and ovarian cancer through early-detection breakthroughs.
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Chapter 5: Later Ventures & Current Work
- Backed deep-tech ventures like D-Wave Systems (quantum computing).
- Invested in iSchemaView (RapidAI), whose software extended global stroke treatment windows from 6 to 24 hours.
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Chapter 6: Reflections & Guidance
- Applauds Cisco’s continued adaptability under Chuck Robbins.
- Encourages younger generations to pursue bioengineering, computer science, and machine learning as the next frontier.
- Themes: entrepreneurial risk, reinvention, leadership under pressure, and the convergence of engineering with biology for impact.
More interviews
Caltech Heritage Project Oral History (2025)
Also available: a four-part oral history recorded March–April 2025 with David Zierler.
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