Bill Lyte (Co-Founder)

William F. Lyte has over 19 years in technical and business development assignments with major national consulting engineering firms, including Tetra Tech, Brown and Caldwell and Kennedy/Jenks Consulting. Over this time span, he has focused on the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and the overall statewide and national maritime and intermodal sector.

Most recently, he has served as 2008 president of the Harbor Association of Industry and Commerce, a port industrial organization, and chairs the HAIC Development Committee. He serves as Secretary/Treasurer and Technology Committee Chair of the California Marine and Intermodal Transportation System Advisory Council (CALMITSAC). In the maritime research sector, he has participated in a federally-funded research project to develop freight tracking systems.

In the technology arena, Bill began by working for three years with startup technology firms, many from Caltech and JPL. From this, he evolved a methodology for creating technology clusters using existing economic resources (ports, universities, major local businesses and service industry). His “Pasadena Technoplex” established in 1991, has generated 200+ spinoff companies, a venture/angel capital base and new facilities. As a result, he was appointed to chair the County of Los Angeles Business Technology Center (www.labtc.org) for its first four years.

Bill Lyte holds a degree in Environmental Studies from U.C. Santa Barbara, with specialization in satellite imaging (remote sensing) for environmental analysis. He has been extremely involved in this technology area in association with JPL and UCSB on federal transportation research projects since 1999.

Bill Walles (Co-Founder)

Willem E. Wallles has several decades of operational and executive experience, covering every phase in starting and running a successful business. Bill has developed a deep skill set in emerging technologies and legal, business, engineering, and technical processes.

An expert in competitive intelligence, technology transfer programs and business incubation, Bill has been a key instigator of several new businesses, as well as public-private partnerships and emerging business models. He is a consensus builder skilled at creating win-win partnerships of key stakeholders, including governmental authorities.

With a background in engineering, Bill was an executive in strategy and operations at Ford Motor Company for 10 years, including managing business planning for advanced manufacturing technology development. In his roles at Ford, Bill developed innovative business case assessment models for emerging technologies, as well as unique programs to optimize capital investment in new vehicle programs. He left Ford to join an Internet start-up, Internet Operations Center, Inc. (IOC) in 1998, which became profitable under Bill's leadership as President. Bill then went on to develop and grow several Internet businesses. In 2004 Bill joined Amplitude Consulting as a Principal and provided his clients with competitive intelligence, strategic planning, brainstorming, and team development services.

Bill holds a Master's Degree in Engineering Management from Wayne State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University, which he attended as a General Motors Scholar. Bill is also a veteran of the United States Navy (enlisted) having served from 1979 to 1985.