Chris Clay, the son of the late Roy L. Clay Sr., will share the story of his father's journey that led him to Silicon Valley, where he garnered the nickname "The Godfather of Silicon Valley." Unstoppable, by Roy L. Clay Sr. and M. H. Jackson, explores the life of Roy L. Clay Sr. from his time as a teenager using his uncanny math skills to run a back-room craps game in segregated, rural Missouri to his rise as a Silicon Valley technology pioneer. Personally recruited to Hewlett-Packard by Dave Packard in 1965, Clay Sr. was a founding member of the computer division where he led the team that created the HP 2116A.

As Clay Sr. rose to become one of the highest-ranking Black employees at HP, he used his position to help the company improve its efforts to combat discrimination and inequality. After leaving HP, he established his own consulting company and worked closely with Tom Perkins (Kleiner Perkins) to shape Silicon Valley as we know it today. Clay Sr. also served as the first Black City Councilman in Palo Alto, became Vice Mayor of the City, and was inducted into the Silicon Valley Hall of Fame. Unstoppable has been featured by Stephen Curry’s Underrated Book Club, USA Today, NBC Bay Area, and Fox Bay Area.

RSVP is required for this event.  This will be a hybrid event. The book talk will occur during the first hour followed by a book signing for in-person attendees. Books will be available for purchase at the event. 

Chris Clay holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. in Finance from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management. After graduating from UCLA, Chris worked for 10 years as an Engineering leader at Rod-L Electronics, a company founded by his father, Roy Clay Sr. After Rod-L Electronics, Chris worked in Product Management, Marketing, and Business Development at several other technology companies. Chris currently works as a business development leader for German-based software company SAP. Chris is also the Managing Editor for Roy L. Clay Sr.’s memoir, Unstoppable: The Unlikely Story of a Silicon Valley Godfather.

Thank you to our co-sponsors for this event, Stanford Black Staff Alliance (BSA),  People of Color in IT (POC-IT).  and Stanford Silicon Valley Archives.