Heidi Huchberger

Faith Community: Judaism

Elizabeth “Heidi” Huchberger is a pioneering business leader whose career spans the formative years of modern computing, Silicon Valley entrepreneurship, and global manufacturing. Beginning at IBM in 1964, she was among the first cohort of women to break into sales, sales management, and ultimately general management, helping shape the early evolution of business computing while advancing women’s leadership in the technology sector.

During this period, she also played a significant role in advancing women’s economic equality, working through the Women’s Political Caucus alongside then-Senator Joe Biden to support passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, a landmark law granting women independent access to credit.

After leaving IBM, she joined the wave of early Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, holding senior leadership roles in emerging software companies, including co-founding a firm that developed some of the earliest commercial artificial intelligence software. In 1992, she acquired and expanded a clean-room commodities company serving high-technology industries, becoming an early participant in PRC-based advanced manufacturing before selling the company in 2007. Deeply committed to education, she has served as a Trustee of Chadwick School, helped establish Chadwick International in South Korea, and remains active with ARCS in supporting doctoral candidates in STEM and medical research, including future Nobel Laureates and MacArthur Fellows.

As a member of the URI’s Strategic Advisory Council, Ms. Huchberger brings a legacy of barrier-breaking leadership, compassion-driven advocacy, and sustained commitment to social justice and educational opportunity. A participant in historic civil rights movements, including the 1961 Freedom Rides, she offers firsthand understanding of the moral urgency of dignity, equality, and human solidarity.

Her experience empowering women, nurturing diverse learning communities, and navigating cross-cultural organizational development—combined with her visionary entrepreneurial mindset—strongly supports URI’s mission to cultivate mutual respect, cooperation, and peace across religious and cultural traditions.