AREA Leadership

The AREA leadership team understands that strong stewardship is paramount in emerging industries such as augmented reality. In a nascent landscape, leaders play a pivotal role in shaping the direction, innovation, and growth of the industry.

- Leadership fosters innovation. AR is a technology that demands creative thinking and the ability to push boundaries. Effective leaders inspire teams to think beyond conventions, driving the development of groundbreaking applications and solutions that set the industry on a transformative path.
- Leadership guides industry standards and ethics. As AR evolves, ethical considerations regarding user privacy, content accuracy, and social impact arise. Competent leaders navigate these uncharted waters, establishing best practices that ensure responsible development, build trust, and safeguard user interests.
- Leadership attracts investment and talent. In emerging industries, investors seek visionary leaders who can translate potential into tangible success. Strong leadership convinces stakeholders that the industry has a promising future, drawing financial resources and skilled professionals eager to contribute to its growth.
- Leadership drives collaboration. Emerging industries often require cross-disciplinary collaboration. Leaders who can foster partnerships between technology experts, designers, content creators, and more, accelerate the convergence of diverse skill sets, facilitating holistic development.
- Leadership influences public perception and adoption. Leaders communicate the benefits of AR, demystifying the technology for a wider audience and driving its integration into daily life. Their advocacy can shape positive narratives that increase adoption rates and societal acceptance.

In the dynamic realm of AR, leadership is indispensable! Effective leadership doesn’t just navigate change, it steers the course of the entire industry toward a prosperous future.

The AREA’s vision and direction is guided by its members. The organization is supported by a staff of professionals that maintains the AREA resources and member portal, delivers AREA programs to our members, and amplifies our work to the worldwide tech community.

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Steering Committee Members

Ryan Wheeler

AREA President

Senior Technical Fellow of Advanced Visualizations at Collins Aerospace

Ryan invents impossible visualization apps that help Collins Aerospace in impossible ways with the excellence of impossible teammates.

These coveted solutions have brought Collins Aerospace nine-figure benefits and, MORE important, have removed tedium and frustration from the daily lives of literal thousands across Operations and Engineering.

Paul Davies

AREA Steering Committee Member & Vice President of the AREA Enterprise Segment

Technical Fellow, Boeing

Paul Davies is an Electrical Engineer, and an Associate Technical Fellow in the Advanced Production Systems group in Boeing Research & Technology. He joined the company in 2003 as an intern, and has worked on multiple government and production programs, and both internal and external research projects. He is currently the principle investigator for technology development projects in Augmented Reality, Machine Vision and Advanced Visualization techniques in the manufacturing domain.

Christine Perey

AREA Secretary

President, PEREY Research & Consulting

Christine Perey is the founder and principal analyst of PEREY Research & Consulting. She provides highly strategic research, business- and market-building related services with an emphasis on building robust strategies leading to the successful introduction and widespread adoption of Augmented Reality products and services.

Christine’s partnership with leading firms, universities, experts and users brings a total view of the landscape in which your products and services will compete. She advises vendors, technology and application providers, research institutes and network operators on the design, launch and operation of AR and IoT technologies.

Gan Wang, Ph.D.

AREA Steering Committee Member

VP, Systems Engineering Ecosystem, Dassault Systèmes (3DS)

Gan provides leadership for 3DS’ collaboration with the systems engineering communities and represents the company in industry associations and standardization bodies.

He is an established leader in systems engineering with decades of experience in developing software-intensive systems. Gan’s areas of specialty include systems engineering processes, system and enterprise architecture, design reuse methodology, cost estimating and analysis, and multi-criteria decision support methods.

Gus Barber

AREA Steering Committee Member

Market & Competitive Strategy Manager, PTC Vuforia

Gus joined PTC in 2018 starting in the CAD division before moving to Augmented Reality soon after. During his time at PTC he has helped manage the launch of seven products and established the long term strategy for multiple product lines.

Prior to working at PTC, Gus spent time working as an engineer in the medical device, alternative energy, CPG, & recreational sports industries.

Gus received an MBA from Babson College with a focus in Entrepreneurship and High-Tech Business Management and a Mechanical Engineering degree from The University of Vermont.

AREA Team

Bill Hoffman

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

As Chairman and CEO , Bill is responsible for all of the business of the OMG, including Board activities and oversight of the OMG’s neutral and open Technical Process.

Bill has been with OMG since 1989 and has worked in the computer industry in the areas of advanced hardware and software for over forty years. A frequent industry speaker, he is knowledgeable on the latest trends in Industrial IoT, Digital Twins, Augmented Reality and sustainability.

Mark Sage

AREA Executive Director

Founder and Managing Director, Sagey11, Ltd.

Mark Sage is the founder and managing director of Sagey11 Ltd. His company provides strategic and operational consulting on marketing and business development, focusing on building lasting partnerships especially for technology start-up and scale-up companies. He has worked with and led various alliances and associations primarily in the mobile operating system space (including Tizen Association and Symbian Foundation).

With a focus on building long-term relationships and offering value and ROI for its members, his goal is to develop a robust and active ecosystem for AR within the enterprise.

Nancy Zukowski

Chief Marketing Officer

As Chief Marketing Officer, Nancy is responsible for revenue growth and member retention. She develops and executes marketing and communication strategies across multiple channels. Nancy oversees a team of enthusiastic professionals and directs our worldwide internal and external marketing efforts. With extensive experience in numerous segments, including information technology, healthcare, finance, and education, Nancy has spent most of her career in marketing and product management roles.

Diane Ehramjian

Account Executive

As Director of Member Engagement, Diane is a resource and point of contact for all consortium members to find help with getting started, introductions, and engagement in consortium activity.

Mihir Kamdar

Project Manager

Mihir is the AREA Project Manager, his focus is on the management of the AREA monthly Committee meetings, with creation and tracking of Committee deliverables. Mihir is responsible for the monthly AREA updates, which feeds into the AREA social media platforms. His background is in Investment Banking working on various Digital and Transformation programmes.