Zazi Forum

Rick LeFaivre has over thirty years of accomplishment as a computer scientist, professor, R&D executive and venture advisor working at leading universities, high technology companies and venture firms. He is a founder and managing partner of IdeaEdge Ventures, a San Diego-based venture development organization, and the Zazi Forum, which brings together world-class technology experts to advise corporations and government agencies on matters of national importance. He is an advisor to several high-technology startups, and serves on the Board of Directors of WatchGuard Technologies (Nasdaq: WGRD), a leading provider of Internet security solutions based in Seattle. He has published extensively in the computer science literature, has served on a number of industry and academic advisory boards, and has testified before the Congress of the United States on matters of technology policy.

Rick got his first programming job in 1967 as a mathematics major at the University of Missouri, and received his Ph.D. in computer sciences at the University of Wisconsin in 1974. He then spent four years as a professor in the computer science department at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, teaching and carrying out research in artificial intelligence and advanced programming technology. He was one of the first researchers to apply the principals of “fuzzy reasoning” to the development of intelligent systems.

Dr. LeFaivre moved to Oregon in 1978, where he spent 11 years as director of computing and visual systems research at Tektronix. In 1989 he moved to Silicon Valley, and spent the next decade as an R&D executive at several high-technology firms, including Sun Microsystems (director of Windows and Graphics Systems), Silicon Graphics Computer Systems (vice president of engineering for Network Systems), Apple Computer (vice president of Apple’s renowned Advanced Technology Group), and Borland International (senior vice president of R&D and Chief Technology Officer). He moved to San Diego in 1999 to help incubate new ventures in the San Diego area, initially with Gateway, and subsequently as a founder of IdeaEdge Ventures and the Zazi Forum, and as Executive Director of the William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the University of California, San Diego, focused on the effective commercialization of university-developed technology. His responsibilities have included overseeing international R&D centers in France, Germany, Belgium, Japan, Singapore, Australia and India, and he has launched ventures in the United Kingdom and India.

Dr. LeFaivre has served on a number of industry and academic advisory boards, including the Council of Chief Technology Officers of the Computer Systems Policy Project, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Software Patent Institute (founder), the Computer Science Research Network, and the IEEE Technical Committee on Machine Intelligence and Pattern Analysis. He is married with two grown children and one fantastic grandchild.

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