BioOf A Prototypical 1960’s Seeker &Social-Change Agent

Douglas M. Molitor is the prototypical 1960’s seeker and social-change agent, as an activist, technology advocate and authority on messaging. A graduate of the University of Florida, he has lived and worked in Manhattan, N.Y., Dorset, Vermont and for 30 years in the San Francisco Bay area. Molitor has always sought to work with smart people to advance big ideas.

The Journey
Molitor’s change agent career began naively as an advanceman with the 1976 presidential campaign for Jimmy Carter, singing, “Won't you please come to Chicago .. We can change the world.”

The highlight of his 1976 campaign was advancing Carter’s sister, evangelist Ruth Carter Stapleton, in a series of whistle stops through California’s agricultural valleys. In the final two weeks of the campaign season, by then a hardened political operative, Molitor was asked to direct the organization of over 30 press conferences for U.S. Senator John Tunney’s reelection bid.

After the excitement of political campaigning, Molitor turned to journalism as managing editor of two boating publications, the entrepreneurial American Boating Illustrated and later Peterson Publications’ Pacific Skipper. Sitting on his dock by the bay, writing about Delrin bearings, 2-part polyurethane and electronic navigation systems, he saw that technology might change the world for the better. So off he went to Silicon Valley where “revolution” was in the air.

In Silicon Valley Molitor collaborated with futurists and keen minds for the next two decades (1983 - 2005), first at Regis McKenna, Inc., and later as a consultant. The highlight was to work with Intel technology legends Ted Hof, Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore who actually did change the world.

The journey in Silicon Valley is best exampled by his experience at start-up MIPS Computer where Molitor worked and learned from software gurus Skip Streeter and John Mashey and future Stanford University President, John Hennessey.
Often Molitor helped scientists and engineers take their ideas to market, only to find that the market wasn’t ready. Three ideas way ahead of their time were: MasPar a simple massive parallel computer similar to the computers Google builds for its datacenters today; David Systems, transmission of data over twisted pair phone lines (think Cisco); and PowerTouch, a wireless based dispatch hub for emergency services.

In the ’00s Silicon Valley became obsessed with consumer gadgets, while the best minds had moved to social entrepreneurship to change the world . Two examples are Karen Tse of International Bridges to Justice and McArthur Fellow, Jim Fructerman at Benetech. With these role models Molitor has taken-up the social entrepreneurship banner as a mentor with the Clean Tech Open, advising not-for-profits and NGOs and by serving on the board of board of VilageTech Solution.