Charlie Trimble is the founder and former CEO of Trimble Navigation, LTD. The company is a leading developer of commercial equipment utilizing the Global Positioning System (GPS). He led the company from a startup in 1978 through its initial public offering in 1990. Trimble Navigation was largely responsible for the commercialization of GPS technology, and at the time of Trimble's departure in 1998, the company was the dominant worldwide supplier of GPS equipment. He holds four patents in signal processing and several in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. After leaving the company, he mentored startups and served on small company boards of directors.

Mr. Trimble is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Council on Foreign Relations. He served on the NASA Advisory Council, the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, the Silicon Valley Defense/Space Consortium, and as chair of the United States Global Positioning System Industry Council. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Inc. Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year in 1991; the American Electronics Association Medal of Achievement in 2000; the NASA Public Service Medal in 2001 and 2004; and the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award. Mr. Trimble earned his B.S. in engineering and applied science in 1963, and his M.S. in electrical engineering in 1964.

Mr. Trimble was elected to the Caltech Board of Trustees in June 2002 and became a Senior Trustee in August 2013. He is a member of the JPL, Student Experience, and Technology Transfer committees. In addition, he served as the chair of the governance subcommittee and is a former chair of the JPL committee. Mr. Trimble was the co-chair of the GPS Visiting Committee in 2017.

During the prior Caltech campaign, Mr. Trimble established a fund that he designated to support pre-peer reviewable research at Caltech. In the BreakThrough Campaign, he has supported several programs at Caltech, including Tapio Schneider's CLIMA project and the Caltech Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution.