Chief Vehicle Architect, General Motors R&D

At General Motors Adrian was the principal inventor and chief architect behind the creation, development, and execution of the reinvention of the automobile. The first vehicle developed, the GM AUTOnomy, was claimed as the most significant advancement in transportation in the last 50 years. Over 70 patents have been filed on this technology platform. The creation and development of these vehicles included working in leadership and harmony with GM Design Staff, GM R&D, and GM Engineering as well as with suppliers like SKF, Brembo, Stile Bertone, and Design Continuum. The resulting series of revolutionary vehicles claimed as the “Reinvention of the Automobile” include the first concept to showcase skateboard architecture, advanced propulsion systems and by-wire controls was the concept GM AUTOnomy in 2001 followed by the world’s first drivable system the GM Hy-Wire in 2002, then the flexible interior with alternative by-wire control interfaces in the showcase GM CARousel in 2003, followed by the production intent GM Chevy Sequel in 2005 and the interim GM Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid in 2007.

Vehicle Program Manager, General Motors R&D

Spearheaded the advanced development of a luxury branded vehicle incorporating new technologies, innovative designs, and architectural enablers supported by a multi-disciplinary committee of GM Executives. Orchestrated work embodied sourcing and identifying technologies and enablers from automotive suppliers, collecting competitive intelligence, identifying target customers, and managing global development across the disciplines of GM Global Design, GM R&D, GM Planning, GM Purchasing, GM Engineering, Vehicle Line Executives, and GM Asia Pacific. In addition to managing outsourced research and development work at Applied Minds in California.

Founder, Rubber Bandits

Created Rubber Bandits, rubber band labels, to win a competition with Staples. From over 8,300 entries Rubber Bandits was selected and chosen to be sold exclusively at Staples for three years at over 1400 stores in North America, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Information Systems Developer, Sandia National Laboratories

Team developer in modeling activities in the design of software configurations and management information models. Responsibilities included accumulating, compiling, sorting and identifying information hierarchies, defining internal methodologies, participating in modeling activities, developing information models, integrating commercial UNIX software packages, and generating templates and model reporting requirements for future development teams and end users.

Ride Designer, Walt Disney Imagineering

Ride designer of innovative technology in mechanical ride and system developments. Working alongside artists, writers, architects, filmmakers, and designers towards the creation and continuous improvement of theme park rides. Duties included concept development, ride design, component research, design of structures, design of components, engineering analysis, and systems engineering for rides at Disneyland, Disneyworld, and Tokyo Disneyland.

Robotics Engineer, NASA

Investigated and developed concepts of tele-operated robotic devices to aid doctors in performing microscopic surgery in robotics in space and land based applications. Through research into state-of-the-art motors and medical research, technical interchanges with other NASA engineers and experts; conceptual scale models were built, systems were illustrated, and a dual-armed surgical robot was constructed in 3D solid graphics for interaction, analysis, validation of controls and kinematics in a 3D vision based interactive environment.

Mechanical Engineer, NASA

Designed testing equipment and coordinated experiments for an emergency escape return capsule from the space station for validation and feasibility of landing dynamics.  Scale models were built, tested, and dropped at various speeds and entry angles onto various soils to determine resulting G-forces, landing responses, and potential impacts to Astronauts. Tasks included scale model research techniques, design of supporting hardware, trouble-shooting, considerable testing, conducting scale model drop tests, analysis, and presentation of results.

Business Management, NASA

Served as a contract negotiator and grant administrator in the Flight Crew Support Division. Duties included financial analysis, conducting detailed analysis of budgets and programs, identifying potential threats and forecasts, modifying and executing new contracts and purchase orders, preparing negotiation positions, and the placement and administration of grants from several thousand to multi-million dollar contracts.

Rotational Assignments

Commercialization Consultant, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Consultant to cutting-edge technology spin-offs in association with laboratory technical staff, venture capitalists, nascent entrepreneurs, and marketing personnel.  Provided advise and assistance in analyzing and identifying technologies with the highest commercial potential, assessing market opportunities, identifying sources of investment capital, developing product plans, researching market opportunities, devising commercialization strategies, and developing commercialization plans in the fields of semiconductor foundries, biometrics, smart cards, led lighting, optical data storage, DNA sequencing and mapping, and CRM tools.

Business Consultant, Sandia National Laboratories

Technology and business consultant to internal Sandia customers for generating, identifying, and building new partnerships with federal agencies, universities, industry, and other national laboratories. Work projects included technology assessments, product realization options, market research, value and benefit analysis, commercial feasibility studies, competitive research, business development, and technology roadmaps for the engineering sciences, advanced manufacturing technologies, microelectronics, and computational and information science divisions.

Chief Executive, Ecoleaf™

ECOLEAF™ is a clean tech venture providing valuable insights on green energy through informative venues and consulting activities. At ECOLEAF™ Adrian researches carbon energy trends and green energy developments to discover insights and novel strategies for green energy innovation.

Innovation Director, Ideation Genesis™

At the idea innovation consultancy Ideation Genesis™, an exploratory and idea development firm, Adrian works on identifying and developing new products, businesses, and ventures for companies. Work projects have consisted of building brands, line extensions, developing new products, and creating new services in many diverse fields including automotive, beverages, office supplies, music, sustainable products, banking, luxury goods, manufacturing, water features, building products, confections, and financial services. 

In 2007 under Ideation Genesis™, Adrian was an Innovation and Creative Director for Fahrenheit 212 in their idea led innovation group for the creation and generation of new commercially viable branded products.

Magna, Diageo, Warner Music Group, Alcoa,

The Gucci Group, Fahrenheit 212, Technoledgey, EvergreenIP, Domani, Siemens, Innocentive,

Big Idea Group

GM Design, Applied Minds, Opel, Holden