Joe DiNunzio

Executive Director, Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Assistant Adjunct Professor

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Stanford Graduate School of Business, 1988
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Psychology, Harvard University, 1984

Areas of Expertise 
Business Analytics, Management & Organizations, Technology Management

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 President of Fido Management, a partnership that provides strategic counsel to corporate and early-stage clients in business, product, and market development, as well as helping them build and manage successful organizations.

DiNunzio is also 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 for work supported by more than $1 billion in research funding received by the University each year. 

DiNunzio’s 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. Joe serves as an elected trustee of the Davis Joint Unified School District board. He and his wife, Dr. Liz Stelow (DVM), have sixteen-year-old twins and a menagerie of animals.