Leadership Dinner: Dan'l Lewin

Leadership Dinners bring proven leaders from various arenas together with a small group of graduate students for dinner and informal discussion about what it means to be a leader and to lead organizations, movements, and people. 

Dan'l Lewin, corporate vice president, Microsoft

Dan'l Lewin, corporate vice president for Strategic and Emerging Business Development (SEBT), is responsible for Microsoft Corp.'s global relationships with startups, venture capitalists and the business relationships with industry partners such as Adobe Systems Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and IBM Corp. Based in Silicon Valley, Lewin also has executive and site responsibility for the company's operations in Mountain View, Calif., which currently employ 2,000 people.

Lewin has spent more than 30 years as a Silicon Valley-based executive leading sales and marketing divisions for companies including Apple Computer Inc., NeXT Inc. and GO Corp. He is credited for single-handedly having brought about the Apple University Consortium, an effort to sell Macintoshes to Ivy League universities at discount prices. When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, Lewin followed him and co-founded NeXT, a computer company aimed at higher education. He was VP Marketing at NeXT, but Jobs took over his role in 1989, and Lewin left shortly afterwards and is now a prominent Microsoft executive. Before joining Microsoft, he was CEO of Aurigin Systems Inc., a startup that pioneered intellectual property asset management, and he has consulted for emerging companies, venture capital firms and corporate joint ventures.

Lewin serves on the boards of the Churchill Club; Software Development Forum; American Electronics Association; Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology and Society; and the Tech Museum of Innovation, where he serves as chairman of the Tech Museum Awards program. He is also on the Advisory Council for the Department of Politics at Princeton University and on the Corporate Adivsory Board of the National Venture Capital Association. He holds a bachelor of arts in politics from Princeton University.

Please Note:
Leadership Dinners have limited seating. If you are accepted you must confirm your place by submitting a Student Participation Fee Agreement, which authorizes VPGE to charge $50 to your Stanford bill – only if you do not fully participate in the event.