Mary Jesse (born November 22, 1964) is an American technology and media pioneer having led early work on several groundbreaking innovations and influential technologies in the late 20th century and early 21st century. Jesse is an executive, entrepreneur,

strategist A strategist is a person with responsibility for the formulation and implementation of a strategy. Strategy generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy ...

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

, professional electrical engineer, author, and wireless pioneer. Jesse is widely regarded as a leader of gender diversity in business and

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

(science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Jesse was a co-founder of AT&T's Project Angel the fixed wireless local loop project which led to the acquisition of McCaw cellular and the creation of AT&T wireless where she served as a Vice-President and corporate officer. She also led the first large scale deployment of commercial wireless data in US history for United Parcel Service. Jesse has been Managing Partner of Hexagon Blue LLC since January 2003. Jesse is currently CEO and board member at MTI, a global leader in retail merchandising and global services.

Early life

Childhood

Jesse is a native of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. Her father spent his entire career working as an

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Space Programs at

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

, and was part of the

Pioneer 10 ''Pioneer 10'' (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing , that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to ach ...

team that received the Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award. Her sister, Rose Herrera served on the

San Jose City Council The San Jose City Council, officially San José City Council, is the legislature of the government of the City of San Jose, California. As the Mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo casts the 11th vote on matters before the council and acts as chair ...

for 8 years, and was vice-mayor from 2014 to 2016.

Education

With digital audio pioneer

Thomas Stockham Thomas Greenway Stockham (December 22, 1933 – January 6, 2004) was an American scientist who developed one of the first practical digital audio recording systems, and pioneered techniques for digital audio recording and processing. He also l ...

as department chair and professor in digital audio communications, Jesse attended

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

graduating with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering with honors. She also attended

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

, graduating with a master of science in electrical engineering.

Career

A native of Northern California, Jesse began her career as an electrical engineering research associate at the

working with Om Gandi on setting the first standards for exposure to radio waves from electronic devices. During this period, she published her thesis entitled "Measurement of the Complex Permittivity of Biological Samples at Millimeter Wavelengths". After college, Jesse went on to work at Sperry Defense Products Group (now

Unisys Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It provides digital workplace solutions, cloud, applications, and infrastructure solutions, e ...

). At Sperry, Jesse worked on then classified air-to-ground communication systems which included the

SR-71 The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a Range (aeronautics), long-range, high-altitude, Mach number, Mach 3+ military strategy, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporati ...

and U-2 aircraft. In the late 1980s, Jesse moved to Stanford Telecommunications to work with company founder

James Spilker James Julius Spilker Jr. (August 4, 1933 – September 24, 2019) was an American engineer and a consulting professor in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at Stanford University. He was one of the principal architects of the Global Posi ...

one of the inventors of the

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

(GPS). In 1991, Jesse moved from

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington to work for McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (MCCI) led by

Craig McCaw Craig McCaw (born August 11, 1949) is an American businessman and entrepreneur, a pioneer in the cellular phone industry. He is the founder of McCaw Cellular (now part of AT&T Mobility) and Clearwire Corporation (now part of T-Mobile via the Sprin ...

. During the course of her tenure at MCCI Jesse worked closely with many pioneers in mobile communications and technology including

, Martin Cooper,

Tom Alberg Thomas Austin Alberg (February 12, 1940 – August 5, 2022) was an American lawyer and businessman, founder and managing partner of the venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group, and a director of Amazon.com from 1996 to 2019. In addition to i ...

, Peter Currie, Nick Kauser, Wayne Perry, Steve Hooper and many others, leading significant programs. Jesse was Vice President of Strategic Technology in 1994 when

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

acquired McCaw Cellular which formed the basis of

AT&T Wireless Services AT&T Wireless Services, formerly part of AT&T Corp., was a wireless telephone carrier founded in 1987 in the United States, based in Redmond, Washington, and later traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol "AWE", as a separat ...

. Jesse was a corporate officer and Vice President of Technology Development at AT&T Wireless through 1998 when she left AT&T. Since 1998, Jesse has been a co-founder, officer, executive and board member at a variety of private and public technology companies. In addition, she has served on several business and STEM related non-profit board including Northwest Entrepreneurs Network, University of Washington Bothell School of STEM board, Washington State University Electrical Engineering board, City of Bellevue Chamber board of directors and Washington Governor's University business council. Jesse currently serves as board member and chief executive officer of MTI founded in 1977 a mid-market, privately-held provider of security and display hardware,

Internet of things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...

software and global services in retail, healthcare, quick serve restaurant (QSR) and hospitality.

Diversity and women leadership

Jesse is strong advocate of gender diversity in business and representation on board of directors. She currently serves as an independent director for Bsquare (NASDAQ: BSQR), chair of the governance and nominating committee and member of the audit committee. She also serves on the board of MTI. Jesse is an alumna of and mentor for Springboard Enterprises the world's most successful venture catalyst and fund focused solely on providing capital, training and mentoring to female entrepreneurs. Jesse is an alumna of and mentor for Onboarding Women, a program developed by

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

, PerkinsCoie, Madrona Venture Fund and Spencer Stuart that seeks to increase the number of women on boards. As an early female technology leader and entrepreneur, Jesse speaks and writes on business, technology, STEM, women and education.

Patents

Jesse is prolific inventor, innovator and entrepreneur. She is listed as an author on more than 19 US and International technology patents and applications.

List of patents

* 9,736,101 Automated communications system * 9,356,896 Automated announcement-and-bulletins system * 9,088,388 Method for frequency division duplex communications * 8,948,352 Multi-channel interactive message response system * 8,693,432 Method for frequency division duplex communications * 8,305,990 Method for frequency division duplex communications * 7,983,217 Method for frequency division duplex communications * 7,606,594 Radio system having distributed real-time processing * 7,450,542 Method for frequency division duplex communications * 7,149,238 Highly bandwidth-efficient communications * 7,106,781 Highly bandwidth-efficient communications * 7,095,708 Methods and apparatus for use in communicating voice and high speed data in a wireless communication system * 6,853,629 Method for frequency division duplex communications * 6,778,518 Distributed radio system with multiple transceivers for simulcasting and selective processing of received signals * 6,621,851 Priority messaging method for a discrete multi-tone spread spectrum communications system * 6,560,209 Method for frequency division duplex communications * 6,480,522 Method of polling second stations for functional quality and maintenance data in a discrete multi-tone spread spectrum communications system * 6,359,923 Highly bandwidth efficient communications * 5,933,421 Method for frequency division duplex communications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jesse, Mary 1964 births Living people American electrical engineers American media executives American women in business People from San Jose, California Santa Clara University alumni Unisys University of Utah alumni