John has over 125 patents issued World Wide in the areas of data management, compression technology, user experience and recommendation systems. He has developed multiple commercial compilers including Lattice/C. John has had leadership roles at SAS, Cisco and Extreme Networks. At SAS, he was the founder and VP of Research and Development for Southpeak, a SAS company. There he led development of the Video Realty™ technology and also was producer for Men in Black: The Game. While at Cisco he led development of multiple advanced technology groups. He was a leader in Cisco’s Technology Center from 1999-2006 where he personally had issued 59 patents and his team generated 100’s to help position Cisco’s patent portfolio as top in the industry. He went on to advance to Senior Director with the Cisco Intellectual Property team which put in place processes and tools to streamline the patenting at Cisco. Cisco achieved receiving its 10,000th US patent during John’s tenure which had dramatically ramped Cisco’s patent portfolio. Most recently John is the co founder and CTO of Escape Velocity Inc., a Triangle based technology startup focused on applying deep analytics to accelerate demand and growth for next generation big companies. John is passionate about STEM and has coached Robotics and Science Olympiad with his wife, Mary Ellen at Cardinal Gibbons for ten plus years. They also developed together the Samantha module, which was used by FIRST for five years to control the Wi-Fi field during their robot competition. In 2011 John was recognized by FIRST as the Volunteer of the Year. He continues to give back, encourage, and excite the next generation of engineers. He has served on the NCSU ECE Strategic advisor board since 2012. He also established the Maker Space at Cardinal Gibbons to expose their students to engineering. John served in US Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant.