Chairman, the Autonomy Institute Accelerating the “Path to Commerce”.
Founder and Chairman of the Autonomy Institute. The Autonomy Institute is a 501c3 consortium of over 200 industry, government, and academia organiza- tions. The core focus is accelerating the “Path to Commerce” for Intelligent Infrastructure and au- tonomous systems.
The Autonomy Institute is leading the deployment of the Intelligent Infrastructure that is the foundation for Industry 4.0 solutions. Industry 4.0 includes Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV), Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).
Past positions: Founder/CEO Hangar Technologies, Inc., eCustomers, Inc., SMART Tech- nologies, Inc., and SMARTNAP. Mr. DeCoux has raised over $100 million for venture and business operations in Texas. Mr. DeCoux has over 30 years of experience within the high-tech industries where his attention has been focused on Founding companies that enhance business productivity through automation.
Investment in a 21st-century Intelligent & Autonomous Infrastructure is among the high- est priorities for stimulating economic expansion, job growth, national security and re- silience. Edge computing, NextG wireless, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and an ultra-resilient electrical grid will drive the largest infrastructure buildout in our nation’s his- tory. This next-generation infrastructure will enable the digital and physical, autonomous world fueling the next economic expansion. This infrastructure will create new highways to support more efficient mobility, automated city services, autonomous cars and trucks, autonomous shuttles, air taxis, inspection drones, and many newer intelligent city applications.
Mr. DeCoux is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ATRIUS Industries, Inc. With the unprecedented advancement in autonomous robotics, ATRIUS was founded to lever- age these new innovations to effect massive change across industry. ATRIUS is working with an ecosystem of partners to develop the Highways and Byways in order to support more efficient mobility, automated city services, autonomous cars and trucks, au- tonomous shuttles, air taxis, inspection drones, and many intelligent city applications.
ATRIUS works with leading partners that focus on smart cities, autonomous systems, ad- vanced wireless networks, radars, UTM, position-navigation-timing and Intelligent in- frastructure supporting autonomy.
Jeffrey DeCoux was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hangar Technology, Inc. Hangar had a goal of achieving a $100 billion savings by 2025 by producing dra- matic impacts on productivity and driving efficiency across some of the most demand- ing industries. Hangar worked with the leading ENR400 companies that focus on con- struction, infrastructure, telecommunications and mega-projects worldwide. Hangar developed the leading autopilot software used in 195 countries, by over 100,000 opera- tors and executed one million missions worldwide.
In his prior experience, Mr. DeCoux was President and CEO of eCustomers, Inc. a lead- ing provider of Enterprise Customer Response software. eCustomers raised over $30 mil- lion in financing and developed a leadership Board that included visionaries Allan Loren (Executive VP at American Express); Bobby Martin (CIO, President of Walmart In- ternational); Lou Hughes (President of GM International) and Gerald Storch (Vice Chairman of Target). eCustomers was acquired in 2002.
Mr. DeCoux was a Founder and President/CEO of SMART Technologies, a leading provider of Enterprise Relationship Management (ERM) software. Mr. DeCoux led SMART through its incredible growth to hundreds of employees; the recruitment of a strong management team and board including Jimmy Treybig (founder of Tandem), Andrew Heller (IBM Fellow) and Peter Solvik (CIO at Cisco). Investors included Goldman Sachs, SAP and Austin Ventures and worked with Fortune 100 corporations as customers. Mr.
DeCoux assured the acquisition of SMART Technologies by i2, which amounted to a bil- lion-dollar acquisition.
SMART Technologies had also created a subsidiary called SMARTNAP. SMARTNAP Cor- poration was the largest colocation provider of Internet services in Central Texas.
SMARTNAP provided dedicated fiber connections into BBNet, AT&T, MCI and Time Warner. In 1998, SMARTNAP was successfully acquired by Level 3 Communications.
Mr. DeCoux holds a deep knowledge of the technology industry and a life long passion for innovation. He enjoys working with young engineers that have a passion for a new innovation or product advancement. He also has a passion for hands on technology, embedded systems, robotics, and most of all – anything autonomous. He is active in his communities and serves as Director for his Community Association.
“…an opportunity to redefine work at a very fundamental level. If we do it right, we might actually be able to evolve a form of work that taps into our uniquely human capabilities and restores our humanity. The ultimate paradox is that this technology may become the power- ful catalyst that we need to reclaim our humanity.”
“Robots Can Restore Our Humanity” – John Hagel