Drew D. Perkins

Early life and education

• Created the popular CMU PC/IP software package for MS-DOS PCs
• Lead author of the Point-to-Point Protocol and contributor to the standard for IP over IEEE 802 networks and BOOTP
• Began his first "company" and designed what may have been the world’s first Ethernet switch

Career

Entrepreneurial experience

• Mojo Vision, a company developing Mojo Lens, the first true smart contact lens.
• Gainspeed, which was sold to Nokia in 2016. Founded in 2012, Gainspeed raised $55 million in financing from investors including New Enterprise Associates, Andreessen Horowitz, Shasta Ventures, Technicolor, and Juniper Networks.
• Infinera, a public company which was co-founded by Perkins in 2001.
• OnFiber Communications, which was sold to Qwest Communications for $107 million in cash in 2006. Other owners of OnFiber Communications included Bear Stearns Merchant Banking and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
• Lightera Networks, co-founded by Perkins in 1998 and acquired by Ciena in 1999 in exchange for 20.6 million shares in Ciena.
• FORE Systems, where Perkins was principal architect from 1993 to 1997. The company was sold in 1999 for $4.5 billion.
• Interstream, where Perkins developed advanced network file server products.

Writings

• Perkins is one of the lead authors of the Point-to-Point Protocol, an early internet technology that provided access to the internet via the circuit-switched telephone system.

Awards and recognition

• Perkins received the Alumni Achievement Award from the CMU Alumni Association in 2005.

Philanthropy

• Perkins has endowed the Drew D. Perkins Professorship in Advanced Networking and Communications at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Investments