Chris Adams:
CLASS OF 1984
Prince Of Wales High SchoolClass of 1984
Vancouver, BC
Stanford University - Electrical EngineeringClass of 1991
Stanford, CA
University of British Columbia - EngineeringClass of 1990
Vancouver, BC
Swansea SchoolClass of 1980
Toronto, ON
Shaughnessy Elementary SchoolClass of 1979
Vancouver, BC
Chris's Story
Life
Engineering degree at UBC
Graduate degree at Stanford
After Stanford I settled in California and went to work at Hewlett Packard. Somehow I ended up on a world wide committee that set the standard for how digital video works (MPEG). If you watch DVDs, HDTV, satellite TV, or digital cable then you use the technology we developed in the early 90s.
After a few years at a big company I ventured off to a startup company called DiviCom. DiviCom was a big success and bought out by a bigger company called C-Cube. Eventually we were bought by an even bigger company called LSI Logic. I had started out in engineering but through all this growth had evolved to VP Marketing and eventually a general manager of a large division. As well as being a pioneer in digital video we also were a big player in developing the cable modem technology which is now very popular. It was a fun ride.
I took a year off and among other things got married. By an amazing coincidence I had met a girl in California who was not only from Vancouver but from Prince of Wales! We were married in Nov 2003.
Saskia and I love camping, skiing, boating - just about anything outdoors. I sti...Expand for more
ll play hockey every week but my favorite sport is now wakeboarding. We live in Saratoga which is about 50 miles south of San Francisco. The weather is great, we are close to everything, but Saratoga has a nice rural feel to it.
After the awesome year off I joined a venture capital firm, and spent three years investing in emerging high tech companies. Along the way our first daughter, Georgia, was born in 2005.
Venture capital firms seem to fire the CEOs of portfolio companies a lot, so I ended up dropping into temporary roles to run companies. One of them I ended up staying in as CEO from 2008-2012. It was a rough ride getting through that financial meltdown but it ended well as we were acquired by Sony. During that period our second daughter, Giselle, was born in 2008, and also in 2008 we completed construction in Saratoga of a new house my wife and I designed together. That was a busy year!
I was looking forward to the PW 20 year reunion. By amazing fate the reunion is the same day as my sister's wedding so missed it. I just checked in here to see if there is going to be a 30 year reunion??? Oops - it's in a week so I will miss that one too :(
Register for Free to view all details!
Reunions
Photos