Mike Baird has 30 years of high-tech hands-on executive engineering and marketing management experience. Co-authors Baird and Swanson are associates in the Los Altos Incubator firstonline.com where aspiring entrepreneurs seek expert advice. He was recently a vice president of engineering for Ask Jeeves' ask.com -- one of the most successful IPOs in history, and a top five search site on the Internet today. Baird was the Chief Technology Officer for Snap-on Incorporated, a $2 billion Fortune 500 corporation, and served as the vice president of marketing and engineering in several venture capital-funded start-ups. He has a PhD in Information and Computer Science from Georgia Tech, an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering, and an MBA. More about Mike Baird can be found at mikebaird.com.
Mike Baird is an Internet Consultant with 30 years high-tech hands-on executive
engineering and marketing management experience in Fortune 500 companies and
successful venture capital-funded start-ups. Co-authors Baird and Swanson are
associates in the Los Altos Incubator
www.firstonline.com where readers of
Engineering Your Start-up (available at
http://eysu.org) and
other aspiring entrepreneurs often seek further expert advice.
Baird was recently the vice president of engineering for Ask Jeeves' ask.com web
site, a top five search site on the Internet today, and benefactor of one of the
most successful IPOs in history. Under Baird's tenure, Ask Jeeves' market cap
increased from $250 million to $7 billion over a five month period.
Prior to ask.com, Baird was the Chief Technology Officer for Snap-on
Incorporated, a $2 billion Fortune 500 corporation. Snap-on acquired several
Silicon Valley high-tech start-up companies where Baird was engaged in senior
vice president-level management or consulting roles (including Computer Aided
Service, Edge Diagnostic Systems, FMC's R&D center, and FMC's Automotive
Service Equipment Division). Baird led Snap-on's industrial, government,
International, and OEM Web-based B2B e-commerce Internet and Extranet
initiatives, determined technical strategy worldwide, and gave direction to 370
engineers. He personally built Snap-on's first Intranet collaboration site, and
managed a highly profitable Custom Solutions P&L center.
Previously, Baird was the vice president of marketing, and earlier the vice
president of engineering, during the turnaround of the venture capital-backed
Flexis Control, Inc., start-up in Hayward, CA. He was vice president of
engineering of venture-funded Contrex, Inc., founder of Digital Vision, Inc.,
and Key Technologist for Schlumberger's Artificial Intelligence Lab in Palo
Alto.
In other positions, Baird managed several premier computer science research
and development laboratories, was product design manager for a Fortune 100
company, business consultant to 20 high-tech start-up companies, and due
diligence consultant for various investors and underwriters. He has earned an
M.S. and a Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science from Georgia Tech, an
undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from the GMI Engineering and
Management Institute (now Kettering University), and an MBA from the University
of Phoenix. He has published several dozen papers, written commercial copy, and
delivered more than 100 presentations and lectures to domestic and international
scientific symposia and universities.
Baird authored the First Edition of
Engineering your Start-up. More about Mike
Baird can be found at www.mikebaird.com
. Baird resides not far from Silicon Valley, in Central California's Morro Bay,
where, when he is not working with start-ups, he is a docent volunteer for
California State Parks, and owner-editor of the non-profit community service web
site www.morro-bay.com
rev. 03/27/2007