Steve Todd
A History
This blog contains a 38-year history of Steve’s career, what he worked on, and how he worked. His CV contains the Reader’s Digest version (found here).
He was a hands-on software engineer working in a large corporation for the first 25 years of his career, building high-tech products with his teammates.
For the rest of his career, he balanced software creativity with global technical leadership and mentoring, encouraging thousands of teammates worldwide to advance their technical careers, enjoy the creative process, and (most importantly!) go home and enjoy their lives (Ecclesiastes 2:24).
The brief biography below describes the foundational elements of his life and career.
Innovation
Steve is the author of the high-tech books Innovate With Influence and Innovate With Global Influence. He retired in April 2024 as a Fellow and Vice President of Data Innovation and Strategy in the Dell Technologies Office of the CTO. He is a long-time inventor in high tech, having filed over 400 patent applications with the USPTO. His innovations and inventions generated tens of billions of dollars in global customer purchases. He co-founded Project Alvarium, an open-source platform for valuing trustworthy data in a data confidence fabric (DCF). He drove the exploration of distributed ledger technology with partners such as IOTA and Hedera.
School
Steve grew up in Dorchester and Lynn, Massachusetts before his family settled in North Andover, MA, where he graduated from North Andover High School. He graduated with a BS in Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire, and immediately enrolled in grad school at UNH. Twenty years later he received an M.S.C.S. Long story…
Work
Steve spent his entire career working on as many high-tech products and technologies as he could get his hands on. He worked with his Data General, EMC, and Dell Technologies co-workers on the creation of new ideas, as evidenced by the long list of inventions that he and his teammates delivered. In May of 2011 he became the Director of EMC’s Global Innovation Network. In October of 2012 he was selected by his company as an EMC Fellow. In 2016 he became an employee of Dell Technologies.
Family (and Travel!)
Steve’s wife Katy and grown-up children Becky and Matthew share a love of one particular hobby: travel. In the early 2000s Steve and Katy took both of their children out of elementary school for 6 weeks, bid adieu to work, and camped cross-country between California and Florida. They completed trips to Ireland and Scotland, as well as Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, the Caribbean, Italy, Russia, Egypt, Israel, India, and China. Steve and Katy skipped 3 New England winters to try out the full-time RV life.
Church
Steve’s grandfather was a Methodist minister. Steve’s Dad was a Methodist minister. Steve’s uncle was a Methodist minister. Steve’s sister was a Methodist minister. Steve met his wife at Methodist church camp. Needless to say Steve was encouraged to participate in church life, and actively served in many capacities at Liberty Church in Shrewsbury, MA, First Congregational Church in Ossipee, NH, and Free Christian Church in Andover, MA. He has earned a Diploma in Bible and Theology, and is a trained Stephen Minister – ready to provide one-on-one, Christ-centered care to hurting people. He has served as Ministry Lead and Step Study Leader for the Celebrate Recovery program. He published the book The Seven Stairs: Prepare for Prayer.
Play
In addition to travel, Steve’s interests are mostly outdoor pursuits, including camping, backpacking/tenting (any season), and hiking with his friends and son. Hiking exploits can be found here and Utah rafting/fishing trip can be found here.