Board of Directors

Dr. Curtis R. Carlson, Chairman

Curtis R. Carlson is the President and CEO of SRI International. Previously, he spent more than 20 years with Sarnoff Corporation, a subsidiary of SRI, and its RCA predecessor. As head of Ventures and Licensing at Sarnoff, he helped found more than 12 new companies. He started and helped lead the high-definition television (HDTV) program that became the U.S. standard and in 1997 won an Emmy® Award for outstanding technical achievement for Sarnoff. Another team led by Carlson won an Emmy for Sarnoff in 2000 for a system that measures broadcast image quality.

Carlson has published or presented more than 50 technical publications and holds fundamental patents in the fields of image quality, image coding, and computer vision. He has served on many public and private boards as well as numerous government task forces. He is the recipient of many awards for his professional achievements.

Carlson received his B.S. in Physics from Worchester Polytechnic Institute. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees are from Rutgers University. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Samuel H. Armacost

Samuel H. Armacost was President and CEO of BankAmerica Corporation from 1981 to 1986. Following his 22-year tenure at Bank of America, he was a partner and later Managing Director at Weiss, Peck and Greer, LLC, an investment management and venture capital firm. He also worked with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.

Mr. Armacost is Chairman of the Board of SRI International, parent company of Sarnoff Corporation. He serves on the boards of Chevron Corporation, Exponent Inc., Callaway Golf Company, Del Monte Foods, Franklin Resources, Inc., and Technology Ventures Management.

Mr. Armacost holds an M.B.A. from Stanford and a B.A. from Denison University. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the California Academy of Sciences. 

Dr. James E. Carnes

Dr. James Carnes was President and CEO of Sarnoff Corporation from 1990 to 2002 and acted as Interim CEO from August 2006 to May 2007. Dr. Carnes has 34 years of combined experience with Sarnoff and its RCA predecessor, beginning as a Member of the Technical Staff in 1969.

Dr. Carnes has been issued nine U.S. patents and is the author of more than 100 papers and presentations. He is the recipient of the David Sarnoff Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement, as well as numerous other distinguished awards.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Science from The Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

Paul M. Cook

Paul Cook is founder and CEO of AgileTV Corporation which is pioneering the use of speech technology to navigate and search content on TV and mobile phones.

He began his career at SRI International. In 1957 he founded Raychem Corporation to develop commercial applications for radiation chemistry. As CEO and Chairman he led Raychem to $1 billion in annual sales by 1988. Mr. Cook also served as Chairman and CEO of CellNet Data Systems and CEO of DIVA Systems Corporation.

Mr. Cook is a graduate of MIT. He served in the Army and fought in the Italian campaign during World War II.

Paul Cook was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1985 and the American Academy of Science in 1990. In 1988 he was one of 10 Americans awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Reagan. He is past Chairman of the Board of SRI International and Sarnoff Corporation.

Thomas J. Furst

Thomas J. Furst serves as Senior Vice President and CFO of SRI International. He brings more than 25 years of experience in finance, contracts and information systems for business and government operations. In his role at SRI, he oversees all finance and administrative activities, including financial planning, cash management, pricing, security, regulatory compliance, and information systems management.

Furst joined SRI from the global management consulting firm of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, where he served as the Chief Financial Executive of Worldwide Technology Business since 1991. Before joining Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Furst was with PRC Inc., where he served as Vice President of Financial Operations. He has also held management positions in finance with HRB-Singer and RCA.

Furst holds an M.B.A. from the College of William and Mary and a B.S. in economics from Villanova University.

Dr. Henry Kressel

Dr. Henry Kressel is a Managing Director and Partner at Warburg Pincus, LLC, a diversified venture capital firm. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus in 1983, he was Vice President at RCA Laboratories; where he was responsible for worldwide research and development in optoelectronics, power devices, integrated circuits and associated software.

Dr. Kressel holds 31 U.S. patents for electronic and optoelectronic devices, and pioneered the first practical semiconductor lasers. He was the founding president of the IEEE Laser and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) and co-founded the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology. He was the recipient of the IEEE David Sarnoff Award for contributions to electronic devices and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

He holds a bachelor’s degree and honorary doctorate from Yeshiva College, an M.S. from Harvard, an M.B.A. from Wharton, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He received an honorary doctorate degree from Yeshiva University and is chairman of their board of trustees. He serves on the boards of SRI International, Suniva, Inc., Telcordia Technologies, Inc., and WP Roaming Holdings SA (MACH).