From audio to microwave

Long, long ago, as a senior in high school, I faced the difficult choice of which career to pursue: engineering or journalism and mass communication. Both were of keen interest, fostered by my part-time job at a radio station. I chose electrical engineering.

By the time I was a senior in college, I had decided to apply my EE degree to audio engineering. Unfortunately, the economy was in a recession and, although I had quite a few interviews, no real job offers followed. I did find an engineering position, ironically working at the other end of the spectrum, with TEM waves, not longitudinal.

That experience and another degree led me to Texas Instruments, where I was introduced to microstrip, an early version of COMPACT, and GaAs. TI gave me the opportunity to be a “midwife”to the birth of GaAs MMIC technology.

When Raytheon acquired TI’s defense business in 1997, I left to join M/A-COM. I willingly traded the hot Texas summers for New England winters. At M/A-COM, I played several marketing, product management, and business development roles serving both commercial and defense markets.

Cobham’s acquisition of M/A-COM led me to TriQuint and the opportunity to reunite with many former TI colleagues. You see, Raytheon’s acquisition of TI’s defense business was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice with the proviso that Raytheon sell TI’s GaAs MMIC segment, which TriQuint purchased.

At TriQuint, I held product and strategic marketing and business development roles focused on the infrastructure markets: base station, point-to-point radio, VSAT, optical networking, and CATV.

David Vye’s departure from Microwave Journal this summer created an opening for a Technical Editor. I resonated with the job description that Pat Hindle, Editor, posted on Linked In. As you now know, the position draws upon my technical background and is a great opportunity to pursue my long-standing interest in journalism and media.

And so here I am, honored to join the most prestigious of the RF and microwave media, a publication that has informed me throughout my career, and a talented and devoted team.

My vision

If you’ve patiently read this far, let me conclude with what I hope to contribute to Microwave Journal.

To be successful as a publication, we need to provide informative, educational, and interesting information to you, our readers. Our goal is to make you more effective, productive, and informed in your roles.

I see my role as helping Microwave Journal achieve this goal through our various platforms (i.e., magazine, website, newsletters, webinars, events), while maintaining our high standards for quality of content. In addition to providing practical technical information, I’d like to expand the conversation about the markets we serve and the business of our industry.

Your feedback is always welcome. Leave a comment, connect with me on Linked In, or follow me on Twitter.