Perry Lea

My role in my time on earth has been a technologist, a lecturer, an author, a strategist, an evangelist, a business developer, an entrepreneur, a researcher, an inventor, and a geek. My career began in the early 1990's while working on my undergrad in computer science. I started my own consulting company as well as worked in local companies in the areas of digital imaging, computer aided design, and mainframes (remember mainframes). I put my way through college working and going to school while hovering between a degree in physics, computer science, or electrical engineering. I settled on whichever degree got me to the 130 credits fastest and by fate (back in the day as UWM, it was often difficult to get the classes needed to complete a degree in the order necessary). CS won with minors in math and physics. In the early 1990's, we entered a recession. However, my degree was hot and I got recruited by NASA Goddard Space Center, NASA Johnson Space Center, Hewlett Packard, and Argonne National Labs. I settled on HP because back in the day that was the hottest job for an engineer. It was the Google/Apple/Facebook of the day. And I got the job. I also wanted to get away from 20 years of Wisconsin winters. So I moved to Idaho where Hp had a very large site responsible for the R&D for LaserJets and disk systems. I worked in the Imaging and Printing group. I moved up the ranks from software engineer to firmware engineer to engineering scientist to master architect of technical staff to distinguished technologist to chief architect. I spent 20 years there and worked on 60 cradle to grave systems in imaging, scanning, printing and so on. I wrote several papers, received many patents, and made the business successful. Later in my career I spent more time working in business relations and strategy. In particular I worked with HP Labs on memristor technologies, ARM on technical strategies and partnerships, Intel on imaging and printing roadmaps, and even on far out technologies like the HP Machine. As HP was breaking up, I thought it time to try my hand at something totally new. I was recruited by Micron Technologies (a manufacturer of DRAM and Flash memory) to take their existing technology and build something completely different with it - a processor and computer. This was by far the most challenging and fun assignment I ever worked on. It was groundbreaking, fresh, frightening, and thrilling. This technology was so groundbreaking it was published in IEEE Micro - a premier journal on advanced computing. In short it got the attention of many in the industry: government intelligence, automated driving and car manufacturers, machine learning experts, supercomputer companies, IoT and sensor companies, even Bitcoin mining. Alas, DRAM is a cyclic industry and the project was shelved. So I was recruited by several companies like Google and Microsoft, but settled on a local startup called Cradlepoint to help build out their IoT strategy. The Internet of Things is a rabid and aggressive field with 28% growth YoY. Not to be in IoT is a kiss of death for a tech company. This journey took me to all corners talking to customers, partners, and competitors on connecting what would be the analog and unconnected world to the Internet and finding ways to extract value. That's what I do. I find value in emerging and new technologies. I take the impossible, fail fast, succeed often and deliver a result that has the highest potential for return. I hope you enjoy the book and blog, I'm certain there will be more.