Ray Alderman
Executive Director, VITA
Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.
Previous industry positions: Technical director of VITA; CEO of PEP Modular Computers; founder, partner, and vice president of two startups; microprocessor engineer for semiconductor companies; mainframe computer analyst for a major computer company; U.S. Army military intelligence during the Vietnam war

Industry affiliations or organizations: None, so I can keep my objectivity

Accomplishments you’re proud of: Defeating ANSI, IEEE, and the top 10 computer/software companies at the USDOJ to get ex ante mandatory patent disclosure policies in standards meetings approved and implemented.

First job: Loading 100 bags of fertilizer (100 lbs. each) on a truck before I went to school each morning

Favorite website: www.nuforc.org, the National UFO Reporting Center

The last book I read: Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

Why did you choose this industry for your profession? The insurance industry comes up with a new product every 50 years. The banking industry comes up with a new product every 25 years. This industry comes up with a new product or concept every single day.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have: never gotten married.

The best advice anyone ever gave me was: No matter how tough things get, never ever invest in, work for, or sell to a telecom equipment company.

What trend in the industry is affecting your job and what would you like to do about it? The transition from copper to optical connections. If only the connector and semiconductor companies would quit stalling the effort to make this change, we could have been using optical components and had better performance levels 10 years ago. I am working on the optical computing standards at VITA, and that’s what I can do for now.

Other comments:
The telecom industry is The Lawrence Welk Show of the 21st century: nothing but polkas and waltzes coming from this segment. The industrial market is so badly fragmented, commoditized, and focused in Europe, anyone associated with it in any way will immediately contract terminal financial leprosy as the EU continues to breakout with festering financial pustules. The medical market has been infected by the foam of the feral hydrophobic froth dripping from the mouth of the new government health care bill and will never fully recover in our lifetime. The only market left is the military market, which is going to be the top-performing market for many years to come. Military gear MUST be built in America (to avoid ITAR issues). Military specs are much tougher than junky commodity telecom, industrial, or medical specs… and the military is willing to pay higher prices for better components. With Iran, North Korea, Gaza, Lebanon, Venezuela, Mexico, most of the Middle East, most of Africa, and New Jersey very unstable, we can expect the military market to boom (pun intended) for the next 50 years.