Dirk Gates

Last updated
Dirk Gates
BornJune 25, 1961
NationalityAmerican
Education MBA
Alma mater Pepperdine University
OccupationCEO of Xircom and Xirrus

Dirk I. Gates (born June 25, 1961 in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American businessman, founder and chief executive officer of two companies, Xircom and Xirrus. [1]

Contents

Career

In 1983, Gates received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from California State University, Northridge [2] and then completed the MBA program at Pepperdine University in 1990 at the age of 27 while co-founding his first company, Xircom, with fellow entrepreneur Kirk Mathews. Xircom created the industry's first product Ethernet Pocket Adapter [3] which allowed notebook computers to connect to Ethernet LANs, along with the industry's first Type III PC Card called the RealPort that allowed users to connect Ethernet cables and phone cables directly to the notebook without the use of dongles.

Gates served as Xircom’s president after its launch in November 1988, became chief executive officer in 1991, and in 1995, he became chairman of the company. [4] In March 2001, after 13 years in operation, Gates negotiated the sale of Xircom to Intel Corporation for US$748 million. Gates served as vice president and general manager of mobile communications at Intel [5] and then went on to co-found Xirrus, a Wi-Fi technology company, in early 2004 with Patrick Parker and Steve DeGennaro. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Xirrus until June 2012, at which point he assumed the role of Executive Chairman. Xirrus designs and sells wireless networking equipment called Wi-Fi Arrays based on the IEEE standards 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n.

In 1992, Gates was honored as High Technology Entrepreneur of the Year for the Greater Los Angeles area and in 1994, made Forbes Magazine's Whiz Kid list of the five youngest CEOs of the Best small Companies in America.[ citation needed ] Dirk appeared on the Dylan Ratigan show on MSNBC in September 2010 [6] and in January 2011, Gates was featured in a Kym McNicholas segment on ForbesTV. [7] He has also given countless speeches and presentations on Wi-Fi including the keynote address at Interop New York 2010. [8] Gates has been a member of the CSUN Foundation Board, has served as Chairman of the Viewpoint School Board of Trustees, and is also a member of the Pepperdine Board of Visitors. [4] In 1997, Dirk Gates donated $1 million (apiece) of his personal funds to CSUN and Pepperdine University to express his gratitude for the knowledge he acquired during his schooling. [9] [10]

Personal life

Gates is an avid member of the high-power rocketry community, frequently flying large model rockets in California and Nevada. To facilitate his hobby, Gates started a side company, Gates Brothers Rocketry, with his brother, Erik Gates. The duo appeared on several episodes of the popular Discovery Channel TV series MythBusters that involved rocketry, including the pilot episode. [11]

Related Research Articles

Ethernet Computer networking technology

Ethernet is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1983 as IEEE 802.3. Ethernet has since been refined to support higher bit rates, a greater number of nodes, and longer link distances, but retains much backward compatibility. Over time, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies such as Token Ring, FDDI and ARCNET.

AirPort Discontinued line of products by Apple Inc.

AirPort is a discontinued line of wireless routers and network cards developed by Apple Inc. using Wi-Fi protocols. In Japan, the line of products was marketed under the brand AirMac due to previous registration by I-O Data.

Wi-Fi Wireless local area network

Wi-Fi or WiFi is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves. These are the most widely used computer networks in the world, used globally in home and small office networks to link desktop and laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones, smart TVs, printers, and smart speakers together and to a wireless router to connect them to the Internet, and in wireless access points in public places like coffee shops, hotels, libraries and airports to provide the public Internet access for mobile devices.

California State University, Northridge Public university in Los Angeles, California

California State University, Northridge is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students, it has the second largest undergraduate population as well as the third largest total student body of the 23-campus California State University system, making it one of the largest comprehensive universities in the United States in terms of enrollment size. The size of CSUN also has a major impact on the California economy, with an estimated $1.9 billion in economic output generated by CSUN on a yearly basis. As of Fall 2021, the university has 2,187 faculty, of which 794 were tenured or on the tenure track.

The HomePNA Alliance is an incorporated non-profit industry association of companies that develops and standardizes technology for home networking over the existing coaxial cables and telephone wiring within homes, so new wires do not need to be installed.

Network interface controller Hardware component that connects a computer to a network

A network interface controller is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network.

Linksys is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Linksys products include WiFi routers, mesh WiFi systems, Wifi extenders, access points, network switches, and WiFi networking. It is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Broadcom Corporation American fabless semiconductor company

Broadcom Corporation is an American fabless semiconductor company that makes products for the wireless and broadband communication industry. It was acquired by Avago Technologies in 2016 and currently operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of the merged entity Broadcom Inc.

Wireless router Device that functions as a router and wireless access point

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Home network Type of computer network

A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as network printers and handheld mobile computers, often gain enhanced emergent capabilities through their ability to interact. These additional capabilities can be used to increase the quality of life inside the home in a variety of ways, such as automation of repetitive tasks, increased personal productivity, enhanced home security, and easier access to entertainment.

Qualcomm Atheros is a developer of semiconductor chips for network communications, particularly wireless chipsets. Founded under the name T-Span Systems in 1998 by experts in signal processing and VLSI design from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and private industry. The company was renamed Atheros Communications in 2000 and it completed an initial public offering in February 2004 trading on NASDAQ under the symbol ATHR.

Ultra-mobile PC Obsolete type of handheld computer

An ultra-mobile PC is a miniature version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in spring 2006. Sony had already made a first attempt in this direction in 2004 with its Vaio U series, which was only sold in Asia. UMPCs are generally smaller than subnotebooks, have a TFT display measuring (diagonally) about 12.7 to 17.8 centimetres, are operated like tablet PCs using a touchscreen or a stylus, and can also have a physical keyboard. There is no clear boundary between subnotebooks and ultra-mobile PCs, but UMPCs commonly have form factors other than the common clamshell laptop design, such as having small keys on either side of the screen, or having a slide-out keyboard.

Mobile VoIP or simply mVoIP is an extension of mobility to a voice over IP network. Two types of communication are generally supported: cordless telephones using DECT or PCS protocols for short range or campus communications where all base stations are linked into the same LAN, and wider area communications using 3G or 4G protocols.

WaveLAN

WaveLAN was a brand name for a family of wireless networking technology sold by NCR, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Agere Systems as well as being sold by other companies under OEM agreements. The WaveLAN name debuted on the market in 1990 and was in use until 2000, when Agere Systems renamed their products to ORiNOCO. WaveLAN laid the important foundation for the formation of IEEE 802.11 working group and the resultant creation of Wi-Fi.

Cambium Networks is a wireless infrastructure provider that offers fixed wireless and Wi-Fi to broadband service providers and enterprises to provide Internet access. An American telecommunications infrastructure company, it provides wireless technology, including Enterprise WiFi, switching solutions, Internet of Things, and fixed wireless broadband and Wi-Fi for enterprises. Publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange, it spun out of Motorola in October 2011.

Xircom

Xircom, Inc. was based in Thousand Oaks, California, with manufacturing facilities located in Penang, Malaysia and international offices throughout Europe and Asia Pacific. They were one of the first companies to develop network computing products for notebook computers. Products included computer memory cards, LAN adapters, modems, and remote access server products. The company's products enabled notebook users to share information over a network connection. During fiscal 1999, the company introduced 56K modems in the MiniPCI form factor. In September 1999, the company acquired Rex PC Card Organizer product line. During fiscal 2000, the company acquired Omnipoint Technologies, Inc. and Entrega Technologies Inc. Branded products accounted for 65% of fiscal 2000 revenues and OEM products, 35%. In 2001, Intel acquired Xircom and in early 2003 laid off most of Xircom's Thousand Oaks employees.

Linksys manufactures a series of network routers. Many models are shipped with Linux-based firmware and can run third-party firmware. The first model to support third-party firmware was the very popular Linksys WRT54G series.

Charles Giancarlo Chairman & CEO, Pure Storage

Charles Henry "Charlie" Giancarlo is an American entrepreneur and investor. He is the chairman and CEO of data storage company Pure Storage. He is a former senior executive of Cisco Systems and Silver Lake Partners.

SoftEther VPN Open-source VPN client and server software

SoftEther VPN is free open-source, cross-platform, multi-protocol VPN client and VPN server software, developed as part of Daiyuu Nobori's master's thesis research at the University of Tsukuba. VPN protocols such as SSL VPN, L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN, and Microsoft Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol are provided in a single VPN server. It was released using the GPLv2 license on January 4, 2014. The license was switched to Apache License 2.0 on January 21, 2019.

PowerCloud Systems

PowerCloud Systems was a cloud networking company located in Palo Alto, California. The company designed and manufactured cloud-powered Wi-Fi systems for businesses, carriers and consumers and was a corporate spin-off from the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), a Xerox company. PowerCloud was purchased by Comcast in July 2014.

References

  1. McNicholas, Kym. "In Pictures: Extreme Executives". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  2. "CSUN Surely Can Tell Dirk Gates From Bill". Los Angeles Times. 1997-06-12. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  3. http://ps-2.kev009.com:8081/ohlandl/Xircom/Xircom_Pocket_Adapters.htm%5B%5D)
  4. 1 2 ( "Foundation Board Members' Biographies". Archived from the original on 2009-07-24. Retrieved 2008-09-10. Foundation Board Members’ Biographies)
  5. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_March_4/ai_83525391 Business Wire)
  6. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21134540 NBC News)
  7. ( ForbesTV)
  8. ( "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2011-01-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Interop Keynote)
  9. ( "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-11-23. Retrieved 2008-09-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CSUN Press Releases)
  10. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/ALUMNUS+ENRICHES+CSUN+WITH+GIFT%3B+ENTREPRENEUR+WILL+DONATE+$1...-a083869790 The Free Library)
  11. http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/mythbusters/ MythBusters)

Sources