AEye CEO and leadership

Leader and strategist with a long history of leveraging his change management skills to drive operational alignment and growth within companies. Blair has transformed private and public companies in five different industries, and is currently leading AEye’s charge to make safe, reliable vehicle autonomy a reality.

Previously, Blair served as Global President of PRG the world's largest live event technology and services company, CEO of XOJETone of the fastest growing aviation companies in history, and operating partner at TPG, a premier PE firm with more than $97 billion global investments. He has also held executive and general management positions in technology companies including VerticalNet, Savi Technologies, Autodesk and Sun Microsystems.

An active Board member and advisor, Blair has provided coaching and leadership guidance to youth and universities through organizations including the Positive Coaching Alliance, Juma Ventures, Dartmouth, and the Kairos Society.

Blair is also a space enthusiast, former NASA Innovator of the Year and investor in space ventures, including Moon Express and Virgin Galactic. An astronaut-in-training, he is scheduled to take his maiden voyage to space as a Virgin Galactic astronaut in 2021.

Founded AEye to solve the biggest bottleneck to the safe commercialization of autonomous vehicles: perception. Since the company’s inception, AEye’s software-defined, MEMS-based system has achieved milestone breakthroughs in cost, weight, size and performance. Spent 20+ years developing cutting-edge sensor solutions for the aerospace and defense industry. Began at NASA, working for the Jet Propulsion Lab’s Deep Space Network, which communicated with NASA planetary and deep space probes. Spent six years at Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control Division Advanced Concepts Group developing state-of-the-art ISR and Targeting systems found in virtually every major US airborne military asset. Also served as Chief Technologist at Northrop Grumman Laser Systems, managing the division’s Electro-Optical Sensors R&D.BS in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. MS in Quantum Optics and an MS in Optics & Photonics. Put PhD in Computational Physics on hold to start AEye.

VeriSilicon Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaS™) company that provides IP-centric, platform based custom silicon solutions and end-to-end semiconductor turnkey services for a wide range of applications across a wide variety of end markets including mobile internet devices, datacenters, the Internet of Things (IoT), wearable electronics, smart homes, and automotive.

VeriSilicon's SiPaaS solutions shorten design cycle, enhance quality, and reduce risk. The breadth and flexibility of our SiPaaS solutions make it an attractive alternative for a variety of customer types, including both emerging and established semiconductor companies, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs), and large Internet platform companies.

VeriSilicon's silicon platforms include licensable Vivante GPU cores and vision image processors, ZSP® (digital signal processor) based HD audio, HD voice, multi-band and multi-mode wireless platforms, Hantro HD video platforms, wearable electronics platforms, IoT platforms, mixed signal NUI (natural user interface) platforms for voice, motion and touch interface. VeriSilicon's custom silicon turnkey service encompasses design service that combines its technology solutions and value-added mixed signal IP portfolio targeted for a wide range of process technology nodes, including advanced nodes like 28nm and 22nm FD-SOI, FinFET and provide product engineering service for System on a Chip (SoC) as well as System in a Package (SiP).

Rick's Specialties: Computer Graphics, Visual Effects, Embedded Hardware and Software Engineering, Herding Cats

Bob Brown comes to AEye with over 30 years of financial experience, completing over $20 billion in financing and M&A transactions. He has held CFO roles at Velodyne Lidar, Cepton Technologies, and VeriSilicon (SHA:688521). Earlier roles include VP positions at Cadence Design Systems (CDNS), LSI Corporation (acquired by Avago/Broadcom for $6.6 billion) and GetThere (acquired by Sabre for $757 million). Prior to that, Bob held several roles in finance at Hewlett-Packard. He started his career in banking with Security Pacific National Bank. Bob holds a B.S. in Business from Miami University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

An IEEE fellow and expert on radar, missile defense, GMTI and space surveillance. Former Chief Scientist for DARPA, co-author of a book on adaptive radar, and assistant professor in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. At Cornell, performed funded research on sensor arrays and optimal detection capabilities. An avid writer and speaker with more than 200 published articles in academic and defense strategy journals exploring various areas of space, land, and naval based electronic warfare, sensor, and radar systems. Formerly chief scientist at Booz Allen radar project lead at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and director of signal processing for the defense Industry with BAE/Alphatech. Member of the National Academies of Science Naval Studies Board and recipient of the US Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service.

Founded AEye to solve the biggest bottleneck to the safe commercialization of autonomous vehicles: perception. Since the company’s inception, AEye’s software-defined, MEMS-based system has achieved milestone breakthroughs in cost, weight, size and performance. Spent 20+ years developing cutting-edge sensor solutions for the aerospace and defense industry. Began at NASA, working for the Jet Propulsion Lab’s Deep Space Network, which communicated with NASA planetary and deep space probes. Spent six years at Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control Division Advanced Concepts Group developing state-of-the-art ISR and Targeting systems found in virtually every major US airborne military asset. Also served as Chief Technologist at Northrop Grumman Laser Systems, managing the division’s Electro-Optical Sensors R&D.BS in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. MS in Quantum Optics and an MS in Optics & Photonics. Put PhD in Computational Physics on hold to start AEye.

Leader and strategist with a long history of leveraging his change management skills to drive operational alignment and growth within companies. Blair has transformed private and public companies in five different industries, and is currently leading AEye’s charge to make safe, reliable vehicle autonomy a reality.

Previously, Blair served as Global President of PRG the world's largest live event technology and services company, CEO of XOJETone of the fastest growing aviation companies in history, and operating partner at TPG, a premier PE firm with more than $97 billion global investments. He has also held executive and general management positions in technology companies including VerticalNet, Savi Technologies, Autodesk and Sun Microsystems.

An active Board member and advisor, Blair has provided coaching and leadership guidance to youth and universities through organizations including the Positive Coaching Alliance, Juma Ventures, Dartmouth, and the Kairos Society.

Blair is also a space enthusiast, former NASA Innovator of the Year and investor in space ventures, including Moon Express and Virgin Galactic. An astronaut-in-training, he is scheduled to take his maiden voyage to space as a Virgin Galactic astronaut in 2021.

Founded AEye to solve the biggest bottleneck to the safe commercialization of autonomous vehicles: perception. Since the company’s inception, AEye’s software-defined, MEMS-based system has achieved milestone breakthroughs in cost, weight, size and performance. Spent 20+ years developing cutting-edge sensor solutions for the aerospace and defense industry. Began at NASA, working for the Jet Propulsion Lab’s Deep Space Network, which communicated with NASA planetary and deep space probes. Spent six years at Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control Division Advanced Concepts Group developing state-of-the-art ISR and Targeting systems found in virtually every major US airborne military asset. Also served as Chief Technologist at Northrop Grumman Laser Systems, managing the division’s Electro-Optical Sensors R&D.BS in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. MS in Quantum Optics and an MS in Optics & Photonics. Put PhD in Computational Physics on hold to start AEye.