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Bill Sharpe is CEO and co-founder of The Appliance Studio, a research and innovation company specialising in the impact of digital technology on everyday products and services. His driving professional interest for many years has been to use human-centred research to take computing beyond the realm of computers, and into a world of simple everyday things. In addition, Bill undertakes strategic technology consulting for commercial and public sector clients, bringing fundamental user understanding together with strategic tools for the management of innovation. Bill was previously a Research Director at Hewlett-Packard's corporate labs in Bristol, UK. He joined HP Laboratories in 1985, becoming one of the first HP laboratory directors outside the US. Early work in Bristol provided the impetus for him to set up the Personal Systems Lab that led HP’s early work in the emerging world of pervasive computing. He also spent a period in HP’s Laserjet business in the US as General manager of the Internet Solutions Operation, leading the transition of HP’s peripheral solutions to the Web. Back in Bristol Bill set up new mechanisms for coupling HP Labs to the creation of HP's new businesses. This work led him to the found The Appliance Studio in 1999 as an independent company, aiming to deliver the innovations begun at HP to a wider commercial audience. The Appliance Studio has already created a successful new business for an international client (the award winning Roomwizard™ from Steelcase Inc), and launched a new spinout appliance product company of its own – Quorum Tools Ltd – of which Bill is also the chairman. Bill has a BA (Hons) in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, in Maths, Physics and Experimental Psychology, and an MTech in Computer Science from Brunel University. |
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