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Bio:
Cathy Fulton, Ph.D., is co-founder and CTO of NetQoS, a company focused on optimizing the performance of applications running over wide area networks. The company has won several awards and distinctions, including recognition as the fastest revenue-growing technology company in Texas and the second-fastest communications/networking company in the nation from 1999-2004.
Prior to co-founding NetQoS, Dr. Fulton was Vice President for SmaqCom, a network consulting partnership, and a Research Scientist for Schlumberger. She served in the U.S. Navy for five years as an instructor and Division Director at the Naval Nuclear Power School. Since January 1999, she has been developing the NetQoS proprietary system for network performance management.
Dr. Fulton has performed network performance research and consulting for well over a decade, and is published in archival networking journals such as IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications. She has presented her work at various international conferences and technical events such as IEEE Infocom, the ATM Forum Traffic Management Group, and Networld Interop. She has earned many distinctions over the years, including Austin IT Technologist of the Year, AFCEA Educational Foundation Award, National Science Foundation Fellow, National Defense Service Medal recipient, Naval Achievement Medal recipient, and Navy Master Training Specialist.
Dr. Fulton received her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas; her research focused on the performance analysis of multimedia networks. She also holds a B.S. in Physics from Texas A&M University.
Community involvement:
Dr. Fulton is a member of the University of Texas Engineering Foundation Advisory Council, a member of the board of NetQoS, Inc., and a member of both the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) professional societies.
Person most admired:
Madam Curie. She was a brilliant scientist; she received a Nobel Prize in physics and (eight years later) a Nobel Prize in chemistry. She took initiative; during World War I she was instrumental in making widespread the use of x-rays to help the injured. She succeeded despite hardship, as did her children.
Favorite book:
Tolkien?s trilogy. I read it first when I was eight, and I still enjoy the creativity of that world.
What I enjoy most about my work:
I enjoy the fact that I work with my husband, our strengths complementing each other, to solve diverse real-world problems.
Greatest accomplishment:
My greatest accomplishment will be rearing my children to become productive members of society. All other achievements pale in comparison.
My greatest professional accomplishment is the creation and management of NetQoS. Working as a team, my husband and I transformed an idea into a 60-person profitable business ? and we did it during some of the worst economic times in high-tech history.
Greatest challenge:
My greatest challenge was my fear of speaking in public. Even in a classroom setting I would freeze when asked a simple question by an instructor. I knew that I must overcome my fear in order to succeed, so I attacked it head-on: I joined the military as an instructor. My job required that I speak publicly for several hours at a time, several times a day, five days a week; eventually I learned to love (rather than dread) teaching. I learned that weaknesses could sometimes be transformed into strengths, with the right mindset.
Advances I envision in my field over the next 10 years:
Increasing dependence on internetworking, increasing network mobility, increasing distributed intelligence. Self-healing architectures will be less hype and more reality. Nanotechnology will come into its own.
Strategies to maintain balance in my life:
I arise early, usually at 4am, to get in an hour run before my daughter awakens. I find that exercise helps me keep everything in perspective. Before I head off to work I usually have exercised, read my email, read the news, and played with my dogs and daughter. It feels like a good way to start the day.
Advice for emerging entrepreneurs:
Simple ? never give up on your dream. Be prepared to alter your strategy, but do not relinquish the objective.
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