Before joining PalmSource, a subsidiary of Palm, Inc., Nagel was chief technology officer at AT&T, as well as president of AT&T Labs. As AT&T's chief technology officer, Nagel guided its technology vision and R&D planning. As president of AT&T Labs, he was responsible for managing R&D for the company's next-generation Internet Protocol, data and managed services, and AT&T Business Services IT systems. Nagel also served as the chief technology officer for Concert, the global joint venture between AT&T and British Telecom.

Prior to AT&T, Nagel was senior vice president at Apple Computer, where he led the worldwide research and development group responsible for Macintosh OS software, Macintosh hardware, imaging and other peripheral products. Before joining Apple in 1988, Nagel was head of human factors at NASA's Ames Research Center.

Nagel has served on a number of national and international advisory committees, and in February 1997, he was named to President Clinton's first Advisory Committee on High Performance Computing, Communication, and the Next Generation Internet. He was named to the Federal Communications Commission's Technological Advisory Council in April 1999.

Nagel has been a member of the Palm board of directors since February 2000. He also is a member of the board of directors of Liberate, Inc.; and ArcSoft, Inc.; as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the UCLA Foundation. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.