Anthony M. Fadell
tony@fadell.com
Objective
To obtain a senior management position, (CTO/VP) in
technology strategy, business development or engineering at a small to mid-sized
(40-300 employees) company or innovative division of a multi-national
corporation. The technology-focused company should be creating connected or
mobile Internet devices, wired or wireless communications semiconductors or
network integration software services.
Employment
History
“Bringing
Plug & Play to the Web” - Fuse Systems licenses its technology to web-based
businesses to allow them to reach beyond the browser to manage and control network-edge
devices, such as digital cameras and MP3 players, without required unique
software downloads.
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Raised $1M Angel investment at favorable terms in November
1999.
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Built a 12 person staff from Philips, Apple, SGI, Macromedia,
WebTV, IDEO, Inktomi, Netscape, Lehman and RealNetworks.
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Negotiated a multi-year strategic investment and
product-manufacturing contract with Samsung Electronics.
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Leveraged the company’s knowledge from its initial efforts
to build the “Dell of Consumer Electronics” to develop device connectivity
technologies. Within 2 months, reformed the team, business plan and strategy.
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Created the architecture for a server mediated
peer-to-peer connectivity platform that allows remotely authenticated, secure
communications to a range of devices (USB, 1394, Bluetooth, UPnP, JINI, HAVi
and native-PC) through a unified web-based API. Built a technology
demonstration and alpha implementation.
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Negotiated product-licensing agreements with beta customers
Casio, Intel, Kodak and Ofoto.
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 Beatnik, Inc.
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June. 99 – Oct. 1999
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Independent Management
Consultant
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Retained
by CEO to evaluate and redefine Beatnik’s audio platform strategy. Facilitated
internal strategy sessions, performed detailed value chain analysis and
identified key business needs: revenue growth, platform adoption and
acquisition of branded content.
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Developed strategy to speed platform adoption by
incorporating consumer audio applications into product line, thereby
short-circuiting the time-intensive third-party content creation processes.
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Concluded that an acquisition of a consumer audio
applications company was necessary after directing the make vs. buy decision
process. Outlined potential acquisition targets as well as internal product
development options.
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Headed merger evaluation and implementation team for
Mixman acquisition. Developed joint business plan, performed due diligence, led
merger negotiations and facilitated joint planning sessions. Merger was
completed in Oct. ’99, resulting in a combined valuation of $100M.
Responsible
for the development of Philips' Internet and digital audio product strategy,
investment opportunities and strategic alliances. Reported directly to the
Philips Board of Management.
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Formed and directed
executive-level teams from Philips Audio, Philips Digital Video Systems,
Philips Semiconductors and Philips Research to craft a 3-year technology and
product strategy for Philips’ line of portable MP3 players and semiconductors.
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Generated greater
value from Philip’s existing assets by architecting spinouts of internal
battery and speech recognition technologies. Formulated business strategy,
negotiated intellectual property licensing agreements and structured joint
sales/marketing relationships.
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Initiated and
structured Philip’s strategic relationship with RealNetworks to supply codec
technologies, desktop applications and joint marketing activities for Philips
corporate-wide Internet Audio initiatives.
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Negotiated Samsung
OEM agreement to supply initial Philips-branded digital audio players.
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Managed Philips
digital audio interests with Audible and eMusic by developing content
partnerships and negotiating corporate investments. Supervised Amplified.com
investment as Board member.
Created the business group responsible for developing
Philips Mobile Computing product lines, which included the Windows CE-based
Handheld PCs; Philips Velo-1, Velo-500, & Nino-300. Over 500,000 units of these products were
sold cumulatively in 13 countries over 2 years. Staffed and managed Mechanical,
Hardware, Software, HW/SW Quality Assurance and Manufacturing teams of over 50
persons and 9 direct reports with an $18M annual engineering budget.
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Developed the initial Philips handheld product line and
business plan, successfully securing an $8M concept development budget from
Philips Board of Management while still employed at General Magic.
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Single-handedly convinced Microsoft to re-open its Windows
CE licensing platform and port their software to Philips’ chips, resulting in
the development of the first Windows-based handheld computers.
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Performed manufacturer evaluations and negotiated a
multi-year $25M contract with Solectron Malaysia.
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Shipped the Velo-1 within 13 months of business conception
without initial team or infrastructure in place.
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Specified technology, product and accessory roadmaps for 4
families of devices, and architected all hardware platforms.
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Won numerous awards for product design including PC Week’s
Editor Choice Award, Business Week’s Handheld Design of the Year, Byte’s Best
of Comdex and c|net’s Must Buy.
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Established localization teams to develop the products in
5 languages and produce the product lines in 13 countries.
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Instituted Product Creation Process to ensure consistent
9-month product development cycles.
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 Rocket Science
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Sept. 1994 - Jan.
1995
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Senior Software
Engineer, Contractor
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Rocket Science was early entrant to Sega CD gaming market
and one of the first companies to blend Hollywood production qualities with Silicon
Valley technology to produce the next wave of highly immersive gaming
experiences.
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Ported the Rocket Science CD-ROM streaming video game
engine to the Sega 32X, a dual Hitachi SH2 processor platform ahead of schedule
while being employed full-time at General Magic.
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Creation and maintenance of a complex development
environment that utilized 4 PC and 3 hardware in-circuit emulators.
General Magic was a pioneer in the handheld communicator market,
amassing over 25 technology licensees including Sony, Motorola, AT&T,
Philips, Toshiba, NTT. Joined the
company as the 30th employee and played key engineering roles as the
company grew to over 200 employees, successfully completing its IPO in February
1995.
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System Architect
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Sept. 1994 – Apr.1995
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Instrumental in the development and shipment of all 6
General Magic Licensee products, including the Sony MagicLink, Motorola Envoy, Panasonic
NeoNet, Oki Communicator.
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Architected, developed and patented the MagicBus
Peripheral Serial Bus. Created multiple MagicBus peripherals including
keyboard, phone and diagnostic peripherals.
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Managed all aspects of vendor and customer relationships,
evaluated technical vendor specifications, performed competitor teardowns and
served as technology spokesperson for press, customers and vendors.
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Convinced Mitsubishi to design and fabricate an integrated
MagicBus micro controller and Hosiden to tool specialized connectors at no cost
to General Magic.
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Hardware & Software Engineer
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Apr. 1992- Sept. 1994
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Architected and implemented several Magic Cap Operating
System software components including the Magic Beam infrared communications protocol,
Magic Bus serial bus communications protocol, PCMCIA drivers, low level kernel
timer facilities, touch screen sampling and power management subsystem code in
C and 68XXX Assembly languages.
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Schematic capture and board layout of development platforms.
Wrote ASIC functional block specifications.
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Implemented the Telebug hardware debug devices. Diagnosed
and debugged PCBs and custom ICs.
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Diagnostics Engineer
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Jan. 1992 – Apr.1992
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Created manufacturing diagnostics software, test modules and
documentation for IC bring-up and product shipments.
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Promoted to a hardware and software engineer reporting to
both teams within 4 months of initial hire date.
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Constructive
Instruments, Inc. (Ann
Arbor, MI)
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1991 - 1992
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Founder
& President
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Created
a multimedia software company developing low cost media integration tools for
the K-12 education market. Leveraged
technologies previously developed at the University of Michigan and built a 6-person
team to productize technology and implement the business plan.
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Secured a distribution contract from Wings for
Learning/Sunburst Software; terms included a $100,000 upfront royalty payment
and joint sales/marketing programs.
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Negotiated technology licensing and royalty terms with the
University of Michigan licensing body.
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Shipped software products MediaText and MediaText Jr. that
received educational awards from T.H.E. Journal, Educational Computing.
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ASIC Enterprises, Inc. (Westlake Village, CA)
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1989 - 1992
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Founder/President/ASIC
Design Engineer
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Built
a company to create 65C816-compatible processors for the Apple II market. As
principal engineer, used Mentor Graphics, Cadence Framework and VLSI Technology
IC design tools to create and test gate array silicon logic.
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Architected and
shipped the processor that met all design targets within 9 months of concept
development. Eclipsed competitor products by enhancing performance over 5X.
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Developed technology independent,
test vector generator software to allow rapid design translation and
verification.
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Sold microprocessors to Apple Computer and Applied
Engineering.
As an undergraduate, reported to the professor in charge of
the Advanced Technology Laboratory. Led the conception and creation of the
University of Michigan’s Media Café Multimedia Lab, the first lab on campus to
research multimedia technologies and their applications in educational
settings.
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Obtained $250K through university funding programs to grow
the lab to span 3 rooms, 8 full-time staff, and 21 workstations with associated
multimedia hardware.
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Convinced Macintosh peripheral manufacturers, Radius,
SuperMac and Mass Microsystems to donate needed equipment.
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Created the Broadway Video Network (using RF Broadband and
Digital technologies) that supported remote media access and teleconferencing.
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Developed a Virtual Reality workstation by interfacing a
Nintendo Power Glove and Sega 3D glasses to a Macintosh to provide a 3D spatial
human interface.
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Created MediaText, a multimedia word processor that
incorporated sound, animations, video-clips and CD Audio into standard word
processing documents, that was successfully used in education courses at a
local high school and distributed the software to 5000 teachers at the National
Education Computing Conference.
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Architected next generation classrooms and networking
infrastructure for U of M’s AOSS Building and Ann Arbor’s Community High
School.
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Designed and implemented HyperPlan, a handheld device to
make HyperCard stacks mobile, based on a 68HC11 microprocessor, a
touchscreen-LCD interface and an object oriented database.
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Promoted the Media Café in several Macintosh related
magazines, MacWeek and MacUser and spoke on behalf of the lab at the Multimedia
Expo.
Employed as a summer intern at
this industrial controls product firm that engineered and manufactured its
products for large-scale energy production plants around the world.
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Developed a fully interrupt driven, real-time 6502-based
single board computer and firmware that successfully received Nuclear
Regulatory Commission approval and was installed in the DELMARVA Nuclear Power
Plant.
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Redesigned the High-Temperature Sensing product line to
allow for more flexible and efficient installation that enabled the company to
grow revenues of these products by 3X.
First employee at this startup
Apple II software development & mail order firm that started with $8000 in
a basement. Successfully acquired for $10M in 1995.
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Started as a shipper then quickly promoted to a sales and technical
support roles within 1 month of initial hire date.
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Developed shipping, accounts payable/receivable,
manufacturing and technical support business policies to grow the company to
$200,000/month gross sales and 12 employees.
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Designed and wrote professional utilities, RAMUP (RAM card
utility) and EasyDrive, (hard drive optimizer) which shipped over 80,000
copies.
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Setup and coordinated corporate events, including
conference exhibitions at Applefest ‘87 and NECC ‘87.
Education
Studies concentrated in Advanced
Microprocessor Architecture, VLSI CAD, Video Compression and Human Interface.
Patents and
Publications
5 Patents issued at General Magic, 2 as principal author,
3 others as co-author.
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Patent
Number
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Patent Title
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5675811
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Method For Transmitting Information Over An Intelligent Low Power
Serial Bus
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5787298
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Bus Interface Circuit For An Intelligent Low Power Serial Bus
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5938742
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A Method For Configuring An Intelligent Low Power Serial Bus
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516840
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A Method For Transmitting Bus Commands And Data Over Two Wires Of A
Serial Bus
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5612796
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Support Structures For An Intelligent Low Power Serial Bus
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Published a two-part article,
"Image Compression: Decoding the Industry," New Media News, Boston
Computer Society, 1990, Volume 5, Issue Numbers 3-4. Topic: Description of
various image compression technologies and general technical tradeoffs between
them.
