We have accessibility and information through Google and things like that. We can access any information we want, but I think that people are innately curious about the world. People innately want to share, have more experiences about the world. I want to build technology that opens experiences for as many people as possible.

I have always considered myself a builder. I like to envision new things, think them through, and get them up and running. During undergrad, I led out a number of initiatives primarily related to raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and getting students to sign up for Be The Match. In grad school, I started a food pantry to help students struggling with food insecurity. In one year, we went from a single box in a reslife office to a 1200 square foot facility, 6 staff members, and a dozen volunteers. We ended up with 16 tons of donations that year. Joining a startup was a logical next step.

The opportunity here is to influence the company’s success more directly. In our technology area in optics, AR and VR, there are 5,000 companies big and small competing. It is going to be very hard at the end of the day, working in that field to be in a company that wins. Here, there is an opportunity to not only succeed technically, but succeed in terms of business growth. Our space is unique – sparsely occupied.

Working in computer science and working at Circle Optics are a lot like training for a marathon. It is nonstop effort, and you don’t get to see the results for a very long time-horizon. Daily execution and focus really matter for the long view.

Prior to Circle, I worked for 25 years in the industry in five different companies. My last stint was 13 years at IMAX in R&D. I was always looking for more opportunities to work on challenging problems, unique problems.

There are companies just down the road that I could have gone to if I wanted a nine to five punch the clock. I was done with that. I wanted to try something different. Circle’s been good because I’ve been able to do more optical design. The concept and the ideas are inspiring.

I worked at Kodak for a lot of years and then IMAX.

There are jobs that were just jobs, but they didn’t connect with my passion. Circle does that for me. It is because there is a connection to Circle in that I believe in what we are trying to achieve. For me, it’s about working on new technology and it is about the people in Circle. My passion is the ability to be part of a team and help that team be successful.

I like conceptual work and I like getting concepts delivered. You are presented with the challenge, come up a bunch of ways to do it, and figure it out. It is a really cool thing to use those skills and make something happen.

No matter how much experience we have or our level of expertise, there are always new applications or new ways of expressing things.