Biography

Tom Cannon earned BS, MS and Ph D degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University, and a MS degree in Management from Stanford University. He began his career with AT&T Bell Labs working on the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile program. Since then, he has headed departments at Bell Labs, Sandia Labs, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Tom helped make fiber optics communications practical. Specifically, he developed the equations that defined how to design and manufacture cables without breaking the optical fibers inside. He also led the team that developed the ST Connector, lowering connector cost from $250 to $2.50. He also led the team that invented the optical connector that transmitted firing signals to the Patriot missile during operation Desert Storm. In 2000 Tom was named the Chief Marketing Officer of Santel Networks, a Silicon Valley startup, and raised $28M in Venture Capital funding in just eight months. From 2002 to 2015 he led groups within the Naval Surface Warfare Center that developed safer weapons. Tom’s innovations enabled the weapons that drove Osama Ben Laden out of his caves in Afghanistan. He also developed rigorous cost accounting software that saved his business unit $6 million annually. Tom has 24 patents ranging from low-cost online transactions to a device that improves golfers’ drives. He has authored two books “Survival Routines for Professionals: Moving Toward Corporate Success,” (Prentice Hall, 1988) and “Thinking Like an Innovator: From Idea to Income” (Amazon, 2003). Tom’s community work includes coaching youth athletic teams in Basketball, Baseball and Track & Field. As an athlete, Tom has won three USA National Track and Field titles and carried the Olympic Torch 56 miles (in one week) during the 1984 Olympic Torch Relay. In 1999 he was inducted into the USCAA Hall of Fame. He is married with four sons.