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President of IEEE to visit UNM on Sept. 26

September 12, 2018 - By Kim Delker

The leader of a major technical organization will visit The University of New Mexico this month for a talk and a panel discussion.

James Jefferies, president and CEO of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, commonly known as IEEE, will visit UNM on Sept. 26. All events are free and open to the public.

JefferiesJefferies will present a talk from 1-2 p.m. in the Centennial Engineering Center auditorium titled "IEEE and the Role of Professional Societies.”

Immediately following will be a panel discussion on "Developing an Innovation Mindset Throughout a Career" that will be held in Centennial’s Stamm Commons. Panel members will include Jefferies, faculty, and local industry members.

Jefferies retired from AT&T and Lucent Technologies following 33 years in engineering and executive positions, including fiber optic cable development and manufacturing, quality assurance, and supply-chain management. He managed the engineering teams that delivered the first commercial fiber optic cables for AT&T. He served as logistics vice president, responsible for worldwide supply-chain and export planning. He has led teams in major technology transfers, transitions of information technology, and organizational change. He has also worked in the entrepreneurial sector as chief operating office for USBuild.com in San Francisco.

Jefferies received his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska and a master of science in engineering science from Clarkson University. He also earned a master’s in management from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business as a Sloan Fellow.

IEEE has more than 400,000 members in more than 160 countries, including many in New Mexico.

For more information, contact Sandra Biedron, research professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at biedron@unm.edu.