Hugh Martin joined Verizon through the acquisition of Sensity Systems by Verizon in October 2016. Hugh created the vision for Sensity Systems and the Light Sensory Network and is responsible for steering the company’s strategic course. His 35-year track record as an entrepreneurial leader of cutting-edge technology companies, new ventures, and high-growth businesses includes serving at the helm of numerous highly successful organizations. In 2011, he was named CEO for Fortune magazine’s “Executive Dream Team: The startup edition,” acknowledged for his “management chops” and for successfully taking public two companies, in two different industries. Most recently, the World Economic Forum recognized Hugh and Sensity as a Technology Pioneer.
Prior to Sensity, Hugh was chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences, a leading company in third-generation DNA sequencing. He founded Pacific Biosciences in 2004 with a team from Cornell University and piloted the company through its IPO in 2010 and commercialization in 2011. Before that, he was chairman, president, and CEO of ONI Systems, a high-speed optical telecommunications systems company he founded in 1998 and took public in 2000. Named the Fastest Growing Company in Silicon Valley in 2001, ONI was sold to Ciena in 2002; Hugh then served as a consultant to Ciena.
During his career, Hugh also was president and director of 3DO, an interactive gaming company; served as a CEO-in-residence at the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; and ran desktop engineering for Apple Computer. Earlier, he founded Ridge Computers, designer of the world’s first commercial reduced instruction set computing (RISC) minicomputer.
He earned a BS in electrical engineering from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick.
