http://iie.smu.edu.sg/node/706
an older article, but interesting.
View attachment 418586
Speaker Info:
Alan Boyd is one of the world’s most experienced technology, media and intellectual property specialists with a long record of success in Europe, America, Australia and Asia.
A pioneer of the US personal computer industry in the 1970s, he wrote some of the earliest personal computer programs for MUSE, one of the first independent software companies. In 1980 he became the first Product Development Manager at Microsoft – where he reported directly to Bill Gates and was an early influence on Microsoft’s product strategy. He was responsible for the development of many software products that have since become household names and sold billions of copies and was a member of the team that developed Microsoft Word, Excel, MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. At Microsoft he designed the first versions of Microsoft Project as an internal tool to manage Microsoft’s development projects and it was later released as a commercial product. He was subsequently responsible for the implementation and management of Microsoft’s highly successful acquisitions program and was instrumental in setting up Microsoft Press. He left Microsoft at their IPO in 1986.
On leaving Microsoft he brought the world’s first hypertext browser to market (1986) and helped establish hypertext (http) as the key technology for the Internet. He founded HeadFirst Multimedia, the first integrated multimedia and interactive television company and conducted the first interactive television and streaming media trials in 1990. In London he was chairman of SharkTank, one of the earliest ‘white hat’ hacking operations that provided ‘penetration testing’ services and computer security advice to large corporations, banks and government agencies.
In 1984, Boyd met Madam Wu Yi, former Vice President of the Chinese State Council, who invited him to come to China and advise the government on technology and IP development. He first visited China in 1986 and returned regularly over the next decade. In 1999 he co-founded St Banks International Group, a Shanghai-based advisory and investment boutique investing into small and early stage technology companies.
In the 1980s Boyd was acknowledged by the Reagan administration as one of the world’s leading experts on Intellectual Properties and was employed by the US Treasury Department as an Expert Witness in a number of high profile IP cases. In 2009 he was appointed Senior IP Consultant with one of China’s leading IP law firms, Longan Law. He is also an Advisor with Callahan Advisory of Denver, CO, one of the world’s leading telecoms and cable television advisory and operating companies. In 2011 he co-founded SmartCity Software, the first Chinese software company to focus on the design, development, acquisition and licensing of software needed to design, build and operate modern “smart cities” based on M2M technology and the Internet of Things. Smartcity Software has acquired the rights for China for some of the world’s most advanced software including TianMao (formerly MeeGo), the first ever Chinese-owned operating system for the Internet of Things..
He attended Bath University in England and Columbia University in the USA where he studied Physics and he is the author of two books on computer operating systems published by Bantam. Boyd has lived in China since 1999 and currently resides in Beijing.
