Roberta Katz

Roberta Reiff Katz helped establish the Distinguished Careers Institute (DCI) program at Stanford and has been a DCI advisor for many years. She has been a Senior Research Scholar and is a longstanding board member at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS).  From 2004 to 2017, she was the Associate Vice President for Strategic Planning at Stanford University, assisting with the development and implementation of a variety of new University-wide initiatives as well as the ongoing strategic support of various interdisciplinary endeavors throughout the University. She also served as the interim Chief of Staff to Satnford's President in 2016-17. During 2009-10, she took a leave from her work at Stanford to serve as Special Advisor to the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, U.S. Department of Justice. She has a successful record of executive leadership: Co-founder and CEO of Flywheel Communications, Inc.; President and CEO of the Technology Network (TechNet); Senior Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel of Netscape Communications Corporation; and Senior Vice President and General Counsel of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (subsequently AT&T Wireless) and its subsidiary, LIN Broadcasting Corporation.

Katz was also a lawyer in private practice, specializing in corporate law, as a partner with the firm of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe. Before becoming an attorney, she was a cultural anthropologist. She holds a PhD from Columbia University, a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, and a law degree from the University of Washington Law School. She is a co-author of Gen Z Explained: The Art of Living in a Digital Age (University of Chicago Press, 2021) and a member of various civic and advisory boards.