Kevin Dallas

CEO, Wind River

CEO, Wind River

The speed of technology-driven change is placing Wind River, a leading intelligent systems software company, on a growth trajectory.

“There are a number of secular trends that are putting wind in our sails at a time when many are experiencing significant macroeconomic headwinds,” says company CEO Kevin Dallas. 

Wind River’s software for mission-critical intelligent systems is used in multiple industries, including aerospace and defense, automotive, telecommunications, industrial manufacturing and medical. Wind River’s technology has also been deployed in space, most recently on the NASA James Webb Space Telescope. 

Dallas is referring to three secular trends:

  • Second Wave Of Digital Transformation: After decades of focus on enterprise applications and IT, digitalization is now impacting operational technology, a world of IoT and intelligent machines—drones, robots and autonomous vehicles—that can sense their surroundings, learn, make decisions and act.
  • Intelligent Machine Economy: Where smart, connected, autonomous and economically independent systems, machines or devices carry out the necessary activities of production, distribution and operations with little or no human intervention.
  • Intelligent Edge Compute: Applications like automated self-driving cars, advanced robotics and manufacturing automation are heavily dependent on compute, analytics, AI/ML and 5G as connectivity mechanisms—and all of these new opportunities are at the intelligent edge.

The company’s compelling vision of building an intelligent machine economy can only be achieved with a comprehensive strategy, flawless execution and lived cultural attributes, says Dallas.

“Established lived cultural attributes are critical to the company’s success,” says Dallas. The company’s cultural attributes include a customer focus, a growth mindset, and diversity and inclusion. With respect to a customer-first culture, he adds, “Gone are the days when we disappear in a conference room, come up with a product and then go sell it to the customer. You want to start with the customer, understand their use cases and desired business outcomes, and try to anticipate the unfulfilled needs.” In addition, Dallas says, “We are working to instill a growth mindset across the whole organization and creating an environment where there is diversity of both thought and background, where everyone feels they are included and belong.”

Dallas also notes that the company’s investment in a “social contract” positively impacts its local communities. The California-based Wind River has partnered with organizations like Oakland Promise and Blacks in Technology to empower under-represented groups. “We realize that people who are joining our company are not doing it just for our technology vision and workplace culture but also for how we contribute to the community,” says Dallas.

In January, Aptiv announced the acquisition of Wind River for $4.3 billion. Dallas believes this transformative merger will further fuel Wind River’s growth. Aptiv is a global technology company focused on making mobility safer, greener and more connected.

“Combining Wind River’s industry-leading software, customer base and talent with Aptiv’s complementary technologies, global resources and scale will realize our vision of the new intelligent machine economy,” Dallas says. 

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