Debi Coleman

Deborah A. "Debi" Coleman (born c. 1953) was the Chief Financial Officer of Apple Computer from 1986 to 1988.

Education
Coleman earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Brown University in 1974 and received her M.B.A. from Stanford University in 1978. She also received an honorary Ph.D in engineering from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1987.

Career
Coleman worked at Hewlett-Packard for 3 years from 1978.

Apple Computer
In 1981, Coleman was hired by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs as financial controller of the Macintosh division. In 1984, she was transferred at her request to manage the operation of Apple's manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. Her subordinate, Susan Barnes, took over as controller of the Mac division. In 1985, Coleman and Barnes helped Jobs to get Apple to acquire a 19.99% stake in Adobe Systems, the developer of PostScript.

In March 1986, Coleman became the Chief Financial Officer of Apple Computer, reporting to CEO John Sculley. In December 1988, she took a leave of absence to focus on her health, and publicly discussed her battle with weight control. Her CFO role was filled by Senior VP Al Eisenstat. Coleman returned in July 1989 as Vice President of Finance, responsible for tax and treasury. She left Apple in 1992 after 11 years with the company. Coleman stated that she considered Joanna Hoffman to be her mentor there.



After Apple
Coleman became CEO of Merix Corporation upon its spinoff from Tektronix in March 1994 until October 1999; she remained on at Chairman of the Board through September 2001. Coleman is presently the managing partner of SmartForest Ventures, and is an advisor to PacRim Venture Partners, Utah Ventures, and Alexander Hutton Ventures.

Articles

 * Q&A: Debi Coleman reflects on 30 years of Macintosh by Wendy Culverwell at Portland Business Journal (2014-12-31)