Ken Schmidt - Short Bio

 

Ken Schmidt enjoys building bridges between the lab bench and the marketplace. He is an accomplished technology communicator, able to find the common ground between the research scientist and the business executive. His most recent engagement was as an operations and technology consultant for DARPA. He provides technical consultation for PR firms, and business development/COO consultation for local startup businesses.

Ken spent 6 years at AT&T’s Research Labs, where he directed an Account Management team to match research technologies to his clients’ needs. Prior to that he directed a Business Development effort to identify new research projects that could have revenue potential for AT&T, and helped bring those projects to market. As part of this effort, Ken organized and led an experimental rapid prototyping initiative in AT&T Labs called the e-Garage. He helped foster a spirit of rapid innovation by helping researchers identify and fine-tune projects that have future licensing potential and marketability. He also created tools and processes to evaluate, promote and transfer technologies to market. Ken has six patents.

As Communications Director for Research, Ken helped shape the image and brand of AT&T Labs. He set up and edited Research News, a monthly web-based newsletter for the Research community. He also conceived of and set up a web-based VideoVault to store important videos in a web-accessible format, enabling sales and marketing groups to look at Research prototypes and enjoy a virtual tour of Research. As part of the Labs’ PR team Ken promoted several technologies and projects to national print and TV publications, including segments on CNN, CNBC, ZDTV, and the History Channel, plus demos at the 2000 Vortex conference, the 1999 Fall Interop show in Atlanta, and the 1999AT&T Data Forum.

Prior to joining the Labs, Ken led a development team in AT&T Consumer Services responsible for creating a new voice messaging services platform called HomePlace. Before that, as a customer services manager in AT&T Network Systems, he led various teams responsible for software development, customer support and providing consultation and enhanced service offers to RBOC customers for a set of Operations Support Systems (LMOS, MLT, etc.) He got his start in Western Electric’s Research Center in 1973, where he researched integrated circuit manufacture process improvements and machine controls using the “new” Intel 8008 microprocessor.

Ken has both BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University, and an MBA in marketing and strategic planning from New York University. He completed sales certification training in AT&T’s Network Systems Group, and participates in on-going technical, project management and team leadership seminars and courses.

Ken lives in Califon, NJ with his wife, Elaine and their three daughters. He enjoys running, golf, fishing, soccer, photography and all types of electronic gadgets.