Thomas Hempel

Having attended Stanford, Thomas went to work for Computer Curriculum Corporation, one of the early pioneers of multimedia AI-based online educational software, starting as an engineer and becoming a manager. The dot-com era brought the excitement of the Octane IPO and the challenges of acquisitions (Epiphany), scale and quality; Thomas became a VP and started to deal with much larger teams. Working at NetApp he became deeply interested in offshore development and working with distributed organizations. He brought those interests to Yodlee, where he helped the perpetual startup transform itself with AI and a very strong India based team to get to profitability, IPO and acquisition by Envestnet. That IPO was made possible by a major investment in AI, a decade before AI had become fashionable. Thomas retired from Envestnet in 2021 and currently works with his wife managing their investment company and enjoying mountain life. That includes his role as president of the South Skyline Emergency Preparedness Organization, https://ssepo.org. He has gotten very interested in problems like using the Internet for resilient emergency communications across difficult terrain.