Five ECE Alums Recognized on ‘Power 100’ List

Five ECE alums joined almost 40 other university alums on the Business North Carolina list of influential leaders making significant impact in the state.

Alums from NC State’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have been longtime drivers of economic success in North Carolina and around the world.

Five ECE alumns—along with Chancellor Randy Woodson—were named to Business North Carolina‘s “Power List 2024.” According to the magazine, the list includes “the state’s most influential leaders who are making a significant impact in their industries and the broader community.” NC State ECE alumni accounted for a fifth of the Power List’s Information and Technology category.

Tim Humphrey (BS EE ’96) is the Chief Analytics Officer and NC Senior State Executive for IBM. As a member of NC State’s Board of Trustees, Humphrey remains highly involved with the university, especially within engineering programs where he has given generously to support diversity initiatives. In 2019, he established the Timothy L. Humphrey Women and Minority Engineering Initiatives Award and the Timothy L. Humphrey Inclusion, Equity and Diversity Award. He was also inducted into the NC State ECE Hall of Fame in 2018.

Ryan Pratt (BS EE ’00) is the CEO and founder of Guerrilla RF, headquartered in Greensboro, which provides high-performance MMICs for the wireless infrastructure market. Pratt also currently serves on the NC State ECE Strategic Advisory Board.

Scot Wingo (MS CPE ’91) is the CEO of Spiffy, a mobile vehicle maintenance company that raised $30 million in February to expand into six more states. Wingo also leads the Tweener Fund which supports promising new triangle start-ups, and serves on the Board of Advisors for NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He was inducted into the NC State ECE Hall of Fame in 2015.

Amit Sharma (MS CN ’02) is the CEO of Chapel Hill-based CData Software, a data connectivity business that received $140 million in funding in 2022, earning it a spot on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list of rapidly growing companies.

Kamala Subramaniam (MS CN ’01; Ph.D. CPE ’06) is the Director of Software Engineering and Site Lead for Google’s Durham campus. Kamala is also the Diversity & Inclusion leader for Google Networking, passionate about hiring and growing underrepresented talent in her organizations. She serves on both the NC State Computer Science Strategic Advisory Board as well as the NC State Board of Visitors.

Woodson has been featured among North Carolina’s top leaders annually since the magazine’s inaugural power list recognition. Profiled in the education section of this year’s issue, Business North Carolina notes that “Woodson, 67, has led North Carolina’s largest university based on enrollment — about 38,000 students — since 2010 and has a contract through June 2025. He has helped raise NC State’s national research profile. It’s a lead university for two National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centers and one Manufacturing USA Institute, plus a partner in six others.” Both NSF ERCs—the ASSIST Center and the FREEDM Center are driven by NC State ECE.