About
I am the bridge between technology, business, and innovation.
Through my extensive training and experience I connect all these things together at the same time (BSEE, MSEE, MBA, and US Patent Agent).
Over the years, I have worked on all kinds of technologies, figuring out how to commercialize them, and then executing (leading real, practical implementations):
• Building technology and product roadmaps through innovation leadership
• Intellectual property portfolio development, strategy, prosecution, patent generation, and technology licensing
• New technology development including accelerators, incubators, start-up ventures
• Market / Business analysis, risk analysis, competitive analysis
• Market Research including conducting and analyzing voice of customer, markets, and pricing
• Change management including culture and process development
• Cultivating partnerships, soliciting investors, and stakeholders
• Financial modeling and statistics
• Business process development including stage gate processes
• Risk management of technical, business, and internal corporate risks
• Six-Sigma methodologies
• Portfolio management of R&D and products using advanced analytics
Interest and competence in: Internet of things (IoT), signal processing, financial services innovation, location-based systems, bioengineering, medical devices, Big Data, wireless broadband, software development, web based development, market research, infrastructure / cloud based systems, network and network protocols, satellite broadcast, DVB, databases, ASIC development, digital architecture, digital communications systems (LTE,, physical/application/link layer), short range wireless (NFC, Bluetooth, Wifi, RFID), analog and digital circuits, microprocessors, FPGAs, sensors, displays, power management, imaging (Video/Audio codecs, H.264, medical imaging), optical networking, encryption and security, 3D printing, printed electronics, advanced manufacturing.
Work history
Managing Director
Dream2Sky, LLC
October 2013 – Present (2 years)http://www.dream2sky.com
Dream2Sky, LLC offers complete services in innovation creation and management, intellectual property, strategy, product management, product definition, market analysis, competitive analysis, business case development, and technical analysis. Clients include Fortune 50 companies as well as multi-billion dollar financial services institutions.
I add value by helping companies to:
1. Develop, lead, and implement innovation programs so they can invent for the future.
2. Mentor their employees on how to innovate to generate a practical outcome of value creation and capture.
3. Lead a portfolio of incubator and new business venture projects to maximize return while minimizing risk.
4. Identify technical strategic direction through market/business/patent analytics including Big Data.
5. Enable all things patent related while keeping a laser focus on value, reducing costs, and maximizing return on investment.
Registered to practice in front of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (US Patent Agent #66407).
Member, Board of Directors, ECE Alumni Association
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
September 2011 – Present (4 years 1 month)Champaign, IL
Involved in the advancement of University of Illinois Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, a world class institution.
Business Manager, Innovation, Patent Strategy and Development
Blackberry
May 2010 – October 2013 (3 years 6 months)
Strategically responsible for Blackberry’s $2B+ dollar patent portfolio pertaining to infrastructure, core wireless technology, services, social networking, instant messaging, security, and encryption representing over 2500 issued patents. Drove new strategic innovation and business ventures that lead to enhancing the company’s patent portfolio. Performed technical and business valuation of all patent committee cases including possessing ultimate go/no-go decision authority. Coordinate portfolios at the VP/C-level to ensure broad patent coverage and high patent quality to enhance licensing, litigation, and acquisition activities. Formulate innovation plans with senior product management.
Manager, Analytics
Blackberry
March 2009 – May 2010 (1 year 3 months)
Analyze Blackberry’s patent portfolio (thousands of patents) and conduct continuous benchmarking against competitor portfolios to formulate IP strategies to assist in licensing and litigation. Find candidate 3rd party patents for acquisition. Monitor new competitor patenting activity to feed innovation activities. Gatekeeper and reviewer of all unsolicited 3rd party IP acquisition activities. Develop multi-dimensional regression models to analyze patent quality for Blackberry/RIM and competitor patents. Strategic patent landscape generation used to anchor innovation advanced inventing sessions.
Vice President Product Development and Consultant
Voiceviewer Technologies
June 2008 – March 2009 (10 months)
Reported to CEO. Led activities in strategy, systems architecture development (software and hardware), requirements implementation, technology analysis, customer facing, 3rd party development decision making, program management, and product leadership.
• Achieved goal to architect and trial next generation FDA Class 2 medical devices within 6 month establishing a $200M+ market.
Independent Consultant
PAPPAS IP LAW
September 2008 – 2009 (1 year)
Author and consultant on United States Patent applications for Fortune 100 companies under the direction of an IP Patent/Licensing attorney.
Senior Manager of Business Development and Strategy
Motorola Ventures
September 2003 – May 2008 (4 years 9 months)
Original member of an elite group selected to lead strategic business development initiatives for the Early Stage Accelerator, Motorola’s internal venturing arm. Directly solicited C-Level budget approval for projects representing $7.5M in P&L spend. As head of an internal venture project, performed all duties necessary, including: product management, P&L/budget management, external agreement development and contracts, budget forecast and management, financial analysis, trial negotiation, risk analysis, building and leading global virtual teams, pricing analysis, marketing, strategy, and technical architect roles.
Principal Research Engineer
Motorola
1993 – 2003 (10 years)
As a member of the Wireless Access Technology Research Group (Motorola Labs), I developed advanced algorithms for cellular communications, conducted business analysis of research concepts, consulted to C-level Motorola Corporate Strategy and Technology offices, architected new digital communications concepts, designed and prototyped hardware and software for product development and research.
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
September 1992 – December 1992 (4 months)Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Area
Research assistant investigating time-frequency distributions and image spectrum extrapolation in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Masters thesis was in MRI imaging.
Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
September 1991 – September 1992 (1 year 1 month)Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Area
Taught the first ever digital signal processing laboratory class at the University of Illinois using Texas Instruments signal processors.
Taught the Senior design laboratory class.
Taught the introductory circuits laboratory class.
Geophysicist
Shell
May 1991 – September 1991 (5 months)Houston, Texas Area
Co-op with Shell Oil company as a Geophysicist working on statistical signal processing algorithms for ground seismic data analysis for oil exploration.
Education and qualifications
Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
MBA
2004
Graduated with distinction.
Official Majors: Finance, Marketing, Management/Strategy, Analytical Consulting
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Certificate of Completion MIT Professional Education, Tackling the Challenges of Big Data
2015
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MSEE, Electrical Engineering
Digital signal processing and digital communication systems
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
BSEE, Electrical Engineering
Graduated with honors
Focus on signal processing, statistical methods, and digital communications
