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.
Interview
Oral History of Don Listwin
A 2018 Computer History Museum interview chronicling Don’s journey from early networking engineering to leading Cisco growth, founding Openwave, and championing cancer detection through the Canary Foundation.
Episode Summary
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Watch the Full Interview
Explore the entire conversation for deeper lessons on leadership, investment, and purpose-driven philanthropy.
Open on YouTube