Arno Gourdol

I believe that building a successful product begins by getting a deep understanding of the customer and the technology. Then, design an engaging experience that applies the technology to solve the user problem in the simplest, most elegant way possible.

I have worked on shrink-wrap software, for the consumer and the creative professional, as well as on complex large scale systems. I enjoy working on 1.0 products as well as more mature products.

I have a strong technical background as well as good operational skills. I have managed teams small and large, around the world. I focus on creating an environment that allows my team to excel, while maintaining a hands-on involvement.

EXPERIENCE

Adobe Bridge CS2 and CS3Adobe, 2004—today
  • Responsible for the product development of Adobe Bridge CS2 and CS3. Managed software engineering and quality engineering teams. Worked with product management and other cross-functional teams around the world. (3 patents pending)
  • Creative Suites integration engineering manager.
  • Engineering Manager for Adobe Extensions Manager.
Adobe Creative SuiteAdobe, 2001—2003
  • Responsible for the development of XMP, Adobe's XML-based metadata platform. Advocated its internal adoption, its release as an Open Source project and worked with partners and standard bodies (W3C) to promote its adoption.
  • Engineering manager responsible for the development of the Version Cue client. Established a new model for the integration of shared technology components across the many product teams contributing to the Suite.
Mac OS FinderApple, 1998—2001
  • Architect and lead engineer of a complete rewrite of the Finder for Mac OS X. (2 patents)
  • Established engineering practices for an iterative design process. Participated in weekly design meetings with Steve Jobs.
Mac OS User Interface TechnologyApple, 1992—1997
  • As an intern, developed gesture recognition algorithms for a pen-based platform (3 patents)
  • Developed Navigation Services, the standard Mac OS Open/Save dialogs
  • Lead Engineer for Apple's Human Interface department (70 engineers). Set the technical direction for the team, improved software engineering processes, assigned tasks and participated in the product definition and design of the projects. (1 patent)
  • Worked with product and project management to define the schedule, processes and features of Mac OS 7.6, Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 8.5.
  • Speaker at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) from 1992 to 2001
WinMathSelf-employed, 1986—1988
  • Designed and developed an educational mathematical software for the Mac

EDUCATION

Ph.D. CS dropoutUJF Grenoble, France, 1993
  • Post-graduate degree in software engineering and human interface. Topic: «Architecture of multimodal user interfaces» and «Sketching and scribbling for pen-based computers»
  • Teaching assistant in a CS 200-level course.

PATENTS

  • 9 patents granted «Method and apparatus for icon compression and decompression», U.S. Patent 6,721,455, «Graphical user interface having contextual menus», U.S. Patent 6,493,006, «Multiple theme engine graphical user interface architecture», U.S. Patent 6,188,399, «Icon override apparatus and method», U.S. Patent 6,100,888 , «Method and apparatus for generating composite icons and composite masks», U.S. Patent 6,031,532, «Multi-representational data structure for recognition in computer systems», U.S. Patent 5,749,070, «Method and apparatus for recognizing gestures on a computer system», U.S. Patents 5,594,810; 5,590,219 and 5,583,946
  • 3 patents pending

OTHER INTERESTS

  • Photography: flickr.com/photos/arnog/
  • Travel: France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain, Greece, New-Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Thailand, Japan, Egypt, Mexico, Canada
  • Certified divemaster: PADI 192435
  • First-responder

Updated March 2007