Eric leads Strategic Partnerships for HARMAN, a recent acquisition of Samsung Electronics.  Having started his career in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon, he first applied his specialties in Control Systems to helicopters and helping a helicopter manufacturer – Sikorsky Aircraft – create a technology roadmap that embraced market trends.  The innovation required in aerospace very clearly mirrored challenges in the automotive industry, which is what brought him to HARMAN – the global leader in infotainment systems with a 50% market penetration, an 80% in the luxury category.  Infotainment now is looked at as the foundation for autonomy, the connected vehicle, and a variety of other services it can offer.  This is where he in his position at HARMAN, gets most excited is about identifying the ways that domains whose legacy never intersected automotive, may now see a path to becoming a mobility partner… that is what most inspires him as well as being in Silicon Valley today!