Donna Auguste facts for kids

Donna Auguste (born 1958) is an amazing African-American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She was the co-founder and the boss (CEO) of Freshwater Software from 1996 to 2000. She started the company with her colleague, John Meier. Before that, Donna worked at Apple Computer. She was a senior engineering manager who helped create the Newton personal digital assistant (PDA). She also worked as a senior director for US West Advanced Technologies. There, she met John Meier, and they started thinking about creating Freshwater Software.

In 2000, she sold Freshwater Software to Mercury Interactive Corp. for $147 million. That same year, Fortune Magazine named her one of the "25 Women Who Are Making It Big in Small Business." She also won the 2001 Golden Torch Award for being an amazing woman in technology. Later, Donna went back to school at the University of Colorado Boulder to get her Ph.D. After that, a very old engineering group called Tau Beta Pi named her an "eminent engineer."

Early Life and Education

Donna Auguste was born in Texas. She later moved to Louisiana and then to California, where she went to college. Her mother raised Donna and her four sisters. From a young age, Donna loved to take things apart. She would often open up doorbells and other electrical items. She wanted to understand how they worked.

After high school, she joined the electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) program at the University of California, Berkeley. She worked hard to earn her Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. It was a program with mostly male students. Donna sometimes felt left out or not valued by her classmates.

Auguste then became the first African-American woman to join the PhD program at Carnegie Mellon University.

Her Career Journey

While doing research in applied science and artificial intelligence (AI) at Carnegie Mellon University, Donna interned at Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center. There, she met the people who would later start IntelliCorp. IntelliCorp hired Donna as a software engineer in 1986. She worked on technology products that used artificial intelligence.

After four years at IntelliCorp, Donna took a two-month break. She biked through the countryside of Japan! When she came back, Apple Computer hired her in 1990. She became the lead software engineering manager for the Newton PDA project. At Apple, Donna was well-liked. People praised her management skills and her technical ideas. She even held several patents for her work on the Newton PDA.

In 1996, Donna moved to Boulder, Colorado. She joined U.S. West Advanced Technologies as a senior director. She worked on interactive television apps for the company's fiber-optic network. Donna saw how important the internet would become. So, she started her own company: Freshwater Software Inc. This company provided software that helped businesses keep their important websites and online tools working well.

Freshwater Software grew very fast. It went from a tiny start-up to a big, well-known software company. It had major clients like Fortune 500 businesses, including Alta Vista, IBM, Microsoft, Go.com, and Merrill Lynch. In 2001, Mercury Interactive Corp. bought Freshwater Software for $147 million.

Personal Life and Helping Others

After selling Freshwater Software, Donna Auguste started the Leave a Little Room Foundation, LLC. This is a group that helps people. It provides housing, electricity, and vaccinations to communities around the world that need help.

Donna is a Catholic. She is a member of Cure d'Ars Parish in Denver.