Debi Coleman ’74

Debi Coleman ’74, of Portland, Ore.; Oct. 15. After receiving her MBA from Stanford, she became part of the original Macintosh team and rose to serve as the company’s chief financial officer and, later, vice president of information systems and technology. She moved to Oregon in 1992 to be vice president of operations and materials at Tektronix but left two years later when Tek spun out printed circuit board manufacturer Merix, where she served as CEO. In 2001 she left Merix to start SmartForest Ventures in an effort to boost local funding available to Oregon startups. SmartForest’s portfolio included an array of regional tech companies, among them SignaCert, Kryptiq Corp., NexPlanar, iMove, Attensa, and Phoseon. In 2008, she formed Rainy Day Productions to fund local theater groups. A longtime patron of the arts, she served on the boards of the Oregon Ballet Theatre and the Oregon Symphony, eventually expanding her activities to include producing Broadway plays, most notably Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. She served on several public companies’ boards of directors and this past September she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from Technology Association of Oregon. She also received the C200 Luminary Award Honoring Women in Business in 2002 for Technology Innovator and was an emerita member of the Brown Board of Trustees. She is survived by her mother, four siblings, 13 nieces and nephews, and eight grand-nieces and nephews.