Of First Days and New Beginnings

First days are always memorable: your child’s first day at school, your first day on campus, your first day as a married couple, or your first day on a new job. They’re memorable because they all have a mixture of excitement for the future, fear of the unknown, and deep mindfulness of the present. We remember the new environment and the challenges. Most of all, we remember the people who were with us. First days are the historical mile markers of a new beginning along a different path taken on our life’s journey. And like all journeys of import, they begin with a single step. 

That single step for me began with the announcement made late Friday that I’ll be serving as RealWear’s Chairman of the Board and acting CEO. Given my new roles, I believe it would be good to share my thoughts on these changes as well as opening up a bit about me personally. Some might find these changes surprising because they don’t know the depth of my involvement with the company over the years as I have, for the most part, not been in the public spotlight for RealWear during this time.

Actually, I’ve been involved with RealWear since 2016. It was my great respect for the founders and my strong belief in their mission to enable greater worker safety and productivity by empowering them with the same collaboration tools every knowledge worker takes for granted today, and to do it hands-free in the toughest environments, that persuaded me to get onboard. I knew there had to be better, safer, ways to work; and RealWear was leading that digital transformation.

You see, my background is that of a physicist and engineer who has successfully applied systems thinking and leadership to solve problems and create value during my time as a USAF Officer and in my civilian career with companies like Hitachi, Warner-Lamert, Pfizer, Energizer, Goodrich Aerospace, Tyco, and Johnson Controls. In fact, while I was President of Tyco’s Scott Safety Group, I put together an initiative that developed the world’s first in-mask thermal imaging system for firefighters. My favorite quote from the press at that time was “Scott Sight is giving Predator Vision to firefighters.” That system shares a similar Kopin display used in the HMT-1 and HMT-1Z1. The heads-up display not only expanded the situational awareness of the firefighter for greater safety, it freed their hands so they could do their mission more effectively. The concept of a connected first-responder brought me into the same overlapping concepts of the RealWear team.

I have been the Chairman of the RealWear Advisory Board for most of my time with the company. After our Series A raise, Andy Lowery thought I could serve the company best as COO during our transition to a global growth company. I oversaw our supply chain, operations, and logistics as well as the sales organization before resuming my advisory role prior to our Series B fund-raising. I spoke at RealWear’s first summit and supported customer and partner discussions at our second. Throughout, I have represented the company on opportunities large and small.

Andy Lowery has done incredible things as Co-Founder and CEO of RealWear, and I expect him to continue to make the impossible look only difficult. We remain committed to the success of our customers and ecosystem partners as well as to their expectations for a stable and supportable platform. Andy may be stepping down, but he’s staying actively engaged in what he does best: evangelizing digitally enabled knowledge transfer to the world’s most important industrial companies. I want to thank Andy deeply for his incredible achievements, drive and vision for RealWear.  His incredible ability to lead by doing created a global company and industry leader. There can be no doubt that his tenacity and vision have shaped our culture, and even the culture of some of our customers, into true augmented reality believers. That ethos remains at RealWear. It is deep in our brand and culture. 

 We have a great deal more work to do to achieve our mission of empowering front-line workers with purpose-built technology. When I step into the office on Monday to start my time as Chairman and Acting CEO, I will be reminded of all those first days and new beginnings behind me. I will be thinking of the challenges ahead, and most importantly, the people of RealWear: the shareholders, employees, partners, and customers who I have been given the honor to serve.