Colligan has long been a key contributor to the handheld industry, having served as vice president of marketing for Palm Computing from January 1993 to October 1998, prior to co-founding Handspring. He has worked in close partnership with Handspring co-founders Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky for more than eight years, and led the development and highly successful launch of the original PalmPilot, which re-ignited the handheld category in 1996. Under his marketing leadership, Handspring became the number two company in the global handheld computing industry in just over a year, and in that time set new standards for expansion with its Springboard plug-and-play expansion platform.
Donna Dubinsky, CEO of Handspring, said, Since I started working with Ed Colligan over eight years ago, he has been a true leader in both organizations we helped build together, first Palm Computing and now Handspring. From the start, he has played an instrumental role in product definition, sales and marketing, and overall business strategy. His countless contributions are vital to Handspring’s business and culture, and I am both pleased and fortunate to have him step into this new position.
Prior to joining Palm in 1993, Colligan was vice president of strategic and product marketing at Radius Inc. During his six years there, Colligan helped make Radius the brand leader in Macintosh graphics, graphic imaging, and hardware development. Colligan’s multiple successes have earned him several marketing industry accolades. Marketing Computers Magazine named him the 1997 Marketer of the Year, and Advertising Age named him one of the Top 100 Marketers of 1997, an award that spanned all product categories. He holds a B.A. from the University of Oregon.
