Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Joe DiNunzio

Joe DiNunzio is a senior executive with more than three decades of creative, technical and business leadership creating new ventures and building successful organizations. He has extensive experience as a management consulting practice leader, a Fortune 100 senior operating executive, an entrepreneur and an educator.

DiNunzio is the executive director of the UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. At the institute he leads academies and fellowship programs that bring together researchers and corporate leaders to support technology transfer and commercialization initiatives. He also serves as an assistant adjunct professor at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, working with MBA and undergraduate students in courses on innovation and entrepreneurship.

DiNunzio is the president of Fido Management, a partnership that provides strategic counsel to corporate and early-stage clients in business, product and market development, and helps them build and manage successful organizations.

His prior entrepreneurial experience includes CFO and board member for Harebrained Schemes, an independent game developer acquired by Paradox Interactive AB (publ); chairman, CEO and co-founder of 42 Entertainment, a digital advertising and alternative reality game agency; and founding CEO of Z.com, a venture-backed digital media studio and network.

DiNunzio’s prior corporate work includes serving as SVP of new product development at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he led the global development of theme park concepts and digital media initiatives; as a principal at management consultancy Booz, Allen & Hamilton, where he sold and led client engagements in marketing, operations and organization; and in brand management at Procter & Gamble.

DiNunzio has an A.B. (psychology) from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford. He serves as an elected trustee and president of the Davis Joint Unified School District board, as well as on the board of the Davis Chamber of Commerce. He and his wife, Liz Stelow DVM, have 15-year-old twins and a menagerie of animals.