John Bair

John Bair General Information

Biography

Mr. John Bair serves as Co-Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman at UbiHere. Mr. Bair also served as Managing Partner and Fund Manager at Ohio Gateway Tech Fund. is the co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Technology Officer of Converge Technologies, a full-scope commercialization company. Converge Technologies was founded to ensure that innovation created at Ohio universities and federal laboratories successfully enters commercial markets. With a focus on electromechanical technologies associated with newly manufactured products or improved manufacturing processes, Converge Technologies has supported the growth of Ohio companies of all sizes. He is also the co-founder and CTO of Converge Ventures, an $11mm start-up studio with several successful technology projects under development. Prior to founding Converge Technologies, he was recruited to The Ohio State University as an Executive Director to establish the Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME). CDME was Ohio State's first industry -acing center chartered with supporting value-added engagements with manufacturing companies in Ohio. During the three years, he led the CDME. it grew from the ground up to more than 35 staff, 65 students, $15mm in equipment, over $20mm in revenue, and supported over 75 small business development projects. Prior to joining the university, he served as the Chairman of the external advisory board for The Ohio State University's College of Engineering. He oversaw the strategic planning and commercialization efforts of the college. He was also an industry mentor for the OSU business plan competition, where he successfully supported the launch of dozens of start-ups. He was a founding principal in two of those start-ups, Nikola Labs and K-Air Battery. Nikola recently accepted series A+ funding at a $40mm valuation. While at OSU, he also served as an industry executive mentor for the I-Corps@Ohio program, where he successfully coached multiple start-ups through the customer discovery and lean launch phases. Prior to Ohio State, he founded Pinnacle Data Systems, a full product lifecycle, diversified integrated computer and electronics systems company, in 1989. The company was responsible for designing, commercializing, manufacturing, and supporting technology that integrated into Fortune 100 OEM product lines. Under his leadership as President and CEO, he grew the company into a global manufacturer/provider of OEM-integrated product/design solutions and support services focused on the telecoms, imaging, defense/aerospace, medical, semiconductor, industrial automation, and IT markets. The company developed more than 300 new electronic products for these industries. In 1996, he took Pinnacle public through an initial public offering on the Nasdaq-AMEX exchange (Nasdaq: PNS). He served as the President, CEO, CTO, and Chairman of the Board of Directors; overseeing years of company growth. The company employed over 2,000 professionals in three countries. In 2012, he led the company through an acquisition by Avnet, Inc. and served as the Senior Vice President through 2014 when he left to pursue various entrepreneurship opportunities and support commercialization activities at Ohio State.