Marco Thompson
Chief Technology Officer, Wind River Services

Marco Thompson is a successful entrepreneur. He is the founder of Doctor Design (purchased by Wind River), and is currently the CTO of Wind River Services. Marco is the former chair of the San Diego Telecom Council, and is a member of the Chairman's Roundtable, the Executive Committee of the UCSD Connect program, and of the NextStage Steering Committee.

Marco graduated "magna cum laude" with a BSEE from UCSD in 1979. He worked for Megatek and Syte before founding Doctor Design (seed financing by Mastercard and Visa) in 1984. Doctor Design grew to become the largest Engineering Design Services firm in Southern California, and Marco sold the company to Wind River in 1995. Wind River Doctor Design Services is now 250 people in six cities, and $48,000,000 in revenues.

Marco "retired" in 99 to the CTO role at WRDDS, so that he could become more active in the San Diego startup community, and more involved on the board of the San Diego Telecom Council. In the last 17 years, Marco has founded 7 companies, incubated 9, and taken a BOD or BOA seat on 16 startups. As an Angel, he has provided seed money to 24 San Diego startups.

Marco has been an MIT forum presenter, and has sat on panels several times. He holds 3 patents, has written a book on high speed memory design, and actively supports the MIT Enterprise Forum, SD Telecom Council, UCSD Connect, Tech Coast Angels, and the SD Venture Group.