Page 8: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2011)

Bill Vass CEO, Liquid Robotics8MTRJuly/August 2011 profile Earlier this summer Liquid Robotics announced an exciting chapter in its relatively short history, securing $22m in financing and the selection of Bill Vass, former President and COO, Sun Microsystems Federal, as its CEO. Vass took time from his busy schedule to share with MTR his vision of his com- panys ? and perhaps moreover the industrys ? future in terms of the collec- tion and dissemination of information from the seas. Can you tell us how a Silicon Valley? exec fits into the subsea space?Vass: My degrees when I started school were in Marine Biology and Geology, but my first job was writing software for the designs of sub- marines and hulls of ships. I worked for a small ocean engineering compa-ny writing software, and then I worked in merchant marine training. So you do have some experiencewith the industry?Vass: Yes, I thought Id be in marine technology or Oil & Gas or some- thing related. But computers were always a hobby for me, so that just became my career ? writing software, running software, running big data systems. I have a strong background in cyber security and private works computing and cloud data systems.Very large-scale systems. Im very familiar with the government space, When former Sun Microsystem Federal executive Bill Vass was named CEO ofLiquid Robotics, the natural question was: Whats a Silicon Valley guy knowabout the subsea industry??A lot, as it turns out. ?by Greg Trauthwein, Editor