Board Members

Ralph Eschenbach
Ralph Eschenbach is the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Trimble Navigation Ltd. He has held this position since 1994. Before that he was Vice President of Avionics. He joined Trimble in 1983 as Vice President of Engineering. Before joining Trimble he was Department Manager at Hewlett Packard labs, responsible for research in several areas of communication protocols and systems. It was at HP that he developed the first working GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver in 1976 that demonstrated the potential for addressing a low cost market for a positioning sensor. That receiver became the basis for Trimble's entry into the GPS market.

He has authored more than thirty papers on GPS receiver's design and testing. About a dozen of his ideas have been patented. He has provided the technical and managerial leadership for five generations of receiver development. In 1987 he won the Institute of Navigation's "Better Mousetrap Award" for innovation in GPS receiver design. In 1991 he won Discover Magazine's award for "Innovation in Computers and Technology".

Mr. Eschenbach received his BSEE from UC Berkeley in 1968 and MSEE from Stanford University in 1970. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He studied one year at the University of Goettingen in Germany and speaks fluent German and conversational Spanish.

He is on the Board of Directors of PinPoint Golf Marketing, LionhearthTechnologies, Adhere Technologies, Waveband, and Telemonitor. He is Former Chairman of the FAA R,E,& D Committee which advises the Administrator on the FAA Research budget and a member of the NASA R&D Advisory Committee.

He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Community Education Center. This is a non-profit multicultural preschool for low-income children in the Redwood City, CA area.

His outside interests include charity work with the Flying Doctors in Mexico and the Ski Patrol at Squaw Valley. He also enjoys bicycling, jogging, flying, golf and traveling with his wife Carol. He is an instrument rated commercial pilot with over 3000 hours flight time.

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