Extreme Engineering Solutions: Management



	Rob Scidmore President and CEO Rob Scidmore brings experience to the CEO role as the founder and owner of SciTech Inc. In 1995 Rob founded SciTech Inc, and grew the startup company into a successful provider of embedded telecommunications products. The success of SciTech soon led to the merger of SciTech Inc with SBS Technologies in 1999. Rob stayed with SBS as the Madison operations manager until July of 2002.
Previously, Rob was with Artesyn Technologies Communications Group from 1984 through 1995. While at Artesyn, Rob was a project and program manager tasked with managing the project teams and customer relations for strategic business. Rob is well known for his engineering mentoring program with the University of Wisconsin Madison. With UW Madison ranked among the top 10 engineering schools in the nation, with over 3500 engineering students, Rob has developed an impressive history of recruiting and retaining the most talented engineers. In nearly two decades Rob's mentoring program has brought young talented engineers to Artesyn, SciTech, SBS and now Extreme Engineering Solutions.

Dave Scidmore COO David Scidmore formed Extreme Engineering Solutions in August of 2002, acting as CEO prior to Rob assuming that role in February of 2003. Currently acting as COO, Dave's contributions to Extreme draw on his 20 years experience in a broad array of engineering and management areas. As well as being actively involved in hardware and software design throughout his career, Dave has acquired a wealth of experience in quality systems design, process development, project management, and corporate operations.
Prior to forming Extreme, Dave worked for SBS Technologies, SciTech, and Artesyn Technologies in Madison. Often acting in the capacity as the lead designer in each of these organizations, he has frequently been responsible for researching new technologies and developing the process and expertise to integrate them into the organization. Dave was also actively involved in the initial development and deployment of the ISO-9000 compliant quality system at Artesyn. Dave's role as founder of Extreme is not a new one to him. Never shy to tackle new technologies and new areas, Dave was involved as a co-founder of ASDG, a company originally focused on providing hardware to the budding Amiga computer industry. However, the engineering side of the business has always been his first love and handing the reigns to Rob has allowed him to focus on what he knows best, developing the capabilities to provide cutting edge products at the highest possible level of quality.

	Ben Klam VP Engineering Ben brings a wealth of hardware design and project management experience to the Extreme Engineering family. In 1997 Ben joined SciTech Inc. Here, Ben helped to establish an experience base in the embedded telecommunications and processing fields. His raw determination to be on the forefront of the technological wave provided motivation and inspiration to his co-workers.
When Scitech was acquired by SBS technologies in 1999, Ben took on a leadership role in directing and managing engineering projects ranging from high bandwidth internet routers to high performance processing modules. With the help of his talented engineering workforce, Ben was able to meet even the most aggressive design schedules. When asked what Ben considers is the most important aspect of the design cycle, his response is "The satisfaction of the customer." Ben prides himself in establishing an effective communications channel with the customer. He feels that superior engineering must be complimented with superior support to provide the customer with an overall experience second to none. Ben has a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he focused on embedded systems design.

Bret Farnum VP Sales & Marketing Bret brings over 14 years of embedded hardware and software experience to Extreme Engineering. As President of SBS Technologies Communications Group, Bret led sales from $5M to $59M in only three years - satisfying customers like Ericsson, HP, IBM, General Dynamics, L-3, Ciena, Motorola, Lucent, plus many start-up companies that required faster time-to-market hardware solutions. Several of those customers came to SBS courtesy of Bret's recommendation to purchase SciTech in 1999.
Previously, Bret sold embedded hardware for V I Computer, Artesyn Communications and embedded software for Microware Systems Corporation, always exceeding sales growth requirements through innovative partnering and relationship building within the embedded industry. In these years, customers ranged from the likes of B/E Aerospace and Boeing to Qualcomm. Bret enjoys a 10-year working relationship with Rob and Dave and always enjoys visiting the Madison, WI headquarters. However, for the foreseeable future, he will remain in less seasonal (and warmer!) San Diego, CA with his family.

	Aaron Lindner Engineering Manager Aaron brings an abundance of experience in not only hardware and software design, but also in project and personnel management, to Extreme Engineering Solutions. As the lead manager of the company's mentoring program, Aaron prides himself on finding and keeping the best engineering talent coming out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To do so, he focuses on keeping the work place as enjoyable and productive as possible.
When SBS Technologies acquired SciTech Inc., Aaron landed a leadership role in managing engineering projects from general purpose serial IO modules to high performance processing and communication modules. Aaron has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a focus in embedded systems design.

Brad Bilse Operations Manager Brad Bilse has proven to be a significant asset to the Extreme Engineering team. Brad manages and oversees the day-to-day operations of the manufacturing side for the company. In addition to over seeing his own team he also coordinates all manufacturing with contract manufactures. His management skills give him a significant expertise in addressing the varied needs of the company's extensive list of customers.
After receiving his Associates degree in Electronics Brad worked as an Engineering Technician at Quantum Devices. There he worked closely with NASA to provide solid-state lighting to grow plants in space for long term manned space missions. In 1998 he joined SciTech taking on several roles including manufacturing, purchasing, sales and customer support. When SciTech was acquired by SBS Technologies in 1999, Brad was the direct channel for transferring new designs to the manufacturing headquarters in Carlsbad, CA. Brad’s vast electronics background gives him the expertise to manage such a wide variety of areas. He takes pleasure working with the cutting edge technology in a fast pace environment. Brad is driven to provide a high quality product and excellent customer satisfaction.