Alan Drew Banks

Drew began his career in 1982 as an intern at SAS institute while attending NC State, where he earned dual BS's in CSC and EE. After graduation - and a 2-yr detour to NYC to explore the performing arts - Drew went to business school at MIT Sloan, afterwards moving to San Francisco where he still lives with his husband, Nick Rubashkin, an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCSF. From 1989 to 1999, Drew held a variety of leadership positions at computer visualization giant Silicon Graphics (SGI), an experience that informed first business book: Beyond Spin (1999). After a brief stint as VP Community for ThirdAge Media (informing his second business book: Customer.Community, 2002), Drew got the entrepreneurial itch and co-founded Pie Digital in an attempt to simplify the complexity of home networking. Taking lessons from Pie’s failure, Drew spent the final decade of his career in visual communications, working to globally expand two European start-ups - Prezi and Drops – and helping broker the sale of Drops to Kahoot! Additionally, Drew holds two patents in home automation, has written two novels - Able was I and Ere I Saw Elba - and is currently working on his 3rd novel and a screenplay.