Katherine Maxfield Biography

Katherine Maxfield goes by Kathie… except in print or when her husband wants her attention. Born into an Air Force family, she lived in 14 homes and attended seven schools by age 18. She resumed bouncing around after college, until settling in Silicon Valley. She and her husband have lived in the same home in Saratoga, California, for almost 25 years now.

Katherine graduated cum laude with a BA in economics from Ohio University. She received an MBA (marketing) from Santa Clara University while working full time in Silicon Valley, and, later, studied full-time for her MFA (writing) from St. Mary’s College of California.

"Starting Up Silicon Valley: How ROLM Became a Cultural Icon and Fortune 500 Company," her first non-fiction book, was published in April 2014. Her short stories deal with interpersonal relationships, whether set around negotiations to buy an exotic tree or murder/suicide. Her personal perspective non-fiction has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Work that didn’t count (or did it?)… babysitter, phone books distributor, life guard, tennis and swim instructor, camp counselor, store clerk, GED test administrator, high school math teacher, second grade teacher, realtor … scattered around Florida, Germany, Mississippi, Maine, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

Finally… Assistant economic analyst for an Arizona bank where she wrote the widely-distributed quarterly newsletter updating the state’s economy, injecting humor into dry material whenever permitted. Then on to market research for Silicon Valley firm ComQuest, then to TRW Vidar, then to ROLM Corporation, where she moved into product marketing and management. From there to computer retailer BusinessLand—leaping from a GPW (great place to work) into an APW (awful place to work.) Then to consulting in marketing and distribution for tech firms like Polycom, Apple, 3Com, and many more.

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