Technology Innovation Institute Appoints Eminent Technologist Dr Ray O. Johnson as CEO
2.8.2021 16:54:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research pillar of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), the overarching advanced technology body in Abu Dhabi responsible for driving research and development for transformative technology outcomes, today announced the appointment of veteran technologist and entrepreneur Dr Ray O. Johnson as Chief Executive Officer. Dr Johnson will work on shaping the strategic direction of the Institute and lead the execution of its growth strategies to achieve operational excellence.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210802005462/en/
Dr Ray O. Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, Technology Innovation Institute (Photo: AETOSWire)
Prior to joining TII, Dr Johnson was an Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, a top-tier American venture capital company that has been part of 130 IPOs in the last 50 years, and before that, he was the Corporate Senior Vice President for Engineering, Technology, and Operations and Chief Technology Officer of the Lockheed Martin Corporation.
Dr Johnson brings to his role over four decades of experience in global technology leadership, making strategic investments in disruptive technologies, and developing business strategies that resulted in several new billion-dollar lines of business. He also holds outstanding networking capabilities; he has met with leaders at the highest echelons of government, industry, and academia. He is frequently sought after as a speaker at global forums on business, strategy, innovation, and education.
Speaking on the new appointment, His Excellency Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General of ATRC, said: “We welcome Dr Ray Johnson as the first CEO of Technology Innovation Institute. His appointment is a much anticipated one – we were keen that the person entrusted with this role should not merely be an excellent research and technology specialist, but equally, a consummate professional and industry stakeholder that is capable of ensuring the most positive outcomes for the breakthrough projects TII is currently engaged in across its seven initial dedicated research centres.
“We are confident Dr Johnson will be able to build game-changing synergies for TII as he leads it towards realising its wider goals of growing its talented global team of 375+ researchers, scientists, and engineers, and ensuring the objectives of the current workstreams are met. He will also leverage his vast network to further expand our visibility and reach across markets.”
For his part, Dr Ray O. Johnson said: “I am very excited about this new role in a region that I admire for its dedication to advanced research and development for the betterment of the UAE. Since TII’s inception in November 2020, I have followed its many announcements and achievements with great interest. As it moves into a new phase of growth, I look forward to working with the talented teams of researchers across its centres to drive competitive results and facilitate breakthrough solutions that transition to the market.”
Technology Innovation Institute (TII) is a pioneering global research and development centre that focuses on applied research and new-age technology capabilities. The Institute has seven initial dedicated research centres in quantum, autonomous robotics, cryptography, advanced materials, digital security, directed energy, and secure systems. By working with exceptional talent, universities, research institutions and industry partners from all over the world, the Institute connects an intellectual community and contributes to building an R&D ecosystem in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, reinforces the status of Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a global hub for innovation, and contributes to the broader development of the knowledge-based economy.
For information on Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), visit www.atrc.ae
For information on Technology Innovation Institute (TII), visit www.tii.ae
*Source: AETOSWire
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210802005462/en/
Contact information
Technology Innovation Institute
Hanz Valbuena
hanz.valbuena@tii.ae
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Airship Announces Results Guarantee; Releases Commissioned Study Finding 476% ROI for Composite Organization22.7.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
Airship, the mobile-first customer experience platform leader, today announced its Airship Results Guarantee, a corporate commitment to achieve predetermined business outcomes for new customers. Concurrently, the company released the results of a separate, commissioned Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Airship, July 2026. The study found that a composite organization based on interviewed customers achieved a 476% Return on Investment (ROI) with a payback period of less than six months. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722832535/en/ Airship has launched a new results guarantee offer to stand behind its value. Alongside this offer, the team shared the results of a new Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study commissioned with Forrester Consulting illustrating that a composite organization achieved a 476% ROI with a payback period of less than six months. “We introduced
Arrakis Comes out of Stealth With $38M to Help Industrial Enterprises Compete in the AI Era22.7.2026 16:56:00 EEST | Press release
Arrakis, the AI deployment company helping industrial companies install AI agents for mission-critical operations, today announced a $30 million Series A led by Blossom Capital, with participation from existing investor Accel, which also led the company's $7.5 million seed round. The round brings total funding to around $38 million and includes backing from prominent technology leaders, including Olivier Pomel, founder and chief executive of Datadog, Olivier Godement, OpenAI’s Head of business products and Junaid Hussein, founder of Cambridge Aerospace. Founded in January 2026 by former Accel investor Rafael Quintanilla, together with co-founders Haroun Beltaifa, Romain Fouilland and Mikhail Galkov - alumni of Palantir, DeliveryHero, Revolut, Datadog and ASML - Arrakis helps industrial companies deploy AI into core operational workflows across aerospace, energy, logistics, manufacturing, construction and telecommunications markets. Across the US and Europe, governments and businesses a
Vultr and AMD Support the University of Cambridge's TESSERA AI Project to Accelerate Global Environmental Monitoring22.7.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vultr, the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company, and AMD, a leader in high-performance and AI computing, have announced their support for the University of Cambridge's Energy & Environment Group in developing TESSERA, a groundbreaking AI foundation model designed to monitor environmental change internationally at unprecedented scale. Vultr is providing the computational infrastructure, based on AMD Instinct MI325X accelerators, necessary to generate global embeddings covering Earth's land surface from 2017 to 2025, enabling applications in agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and renewable energy infrastructure monitoring. The collaboration represents a significant advancement in applying artificial intelligence to planetary conservation challenges. TESSERA processes data from European Space Agency Sentinel satellites to create detailed embeddings - compressed AI representations - of every 10-meter square of Earth's surface. TESSERA represents the most accurat
Omilia Appoints Ryan Kam as Chief Marketing Officer to Lead Global Brand and Growth Strategy22.7.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Omilia, a global leader in Self-Learning Agentic CX, today announced the appointment of Ryan Kam as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Ryan will be responsible for Omilia's global brand, demand generation, and marketing strategy as the company scales its go-to-market presence across enterprise markets. In his new role, Kam will own Omilia's global marketing function, spanning brand strategy, demand generation, product marketing, analyst relations and communications. He joins at a moment of significant commercial momentum: Omilia has seen accelerating enterprise demand across all industries and is investing in a marketing engine built to match the pace of its growth. Ryan Kam brings more than 20 years of marketing leadership across some of the most recognized names in enterprise technology. Most recently, he served as CMO at Egnyte, a leader in cloud content security and governance. Prior to that, Kam held the CMO role at LogicMonitor, where he drove growth for one of the leading infrastruc
Echodyne Announces ATAK Integration for MESA® Radar Platform22.7.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Echodyne, the radar platform company, today announced the availability of an Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) plugin for its MESA® radar platform. The integration enables users to configure, control, and visualize data from Echodyne radars within the ATAK environment, supporting military, public safety, and security operations that rely on TAK for shared situational awareness. The plugin extends radar management and visualization capabilities to ATAK users, allowing high-fidelity radar data and system controls to be accessed through a familiar operational interface. By integrating radar data into existing TAK workflows, organizations can streamline deployment, reduce operator workload, and improve access to real-time situational awareness. TAK is a government-developed geospatial platform used across U.S. military, federal, state, and local government organizations, as well as by U.S. partner nations. According to the U.S. Army TAK Product Center, the TAK ecosystem supports 15 Departm
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom