Lon Safko

Lawrence “Lon” Safko (born August 1, 1955) is an American innovator, inventor, entrepreneur, author, trainer, and professional speaker. Lon is best known for the first commercialization of voice recognition.[1]

Early life

Lon Safko was born in Yonkers, New York to his parents Charles S., a Yonkers policeman and Elizabeth A., housewife and mother. He attended Westchester College and graduated with an “Advanced Civil Technology” degree; later attending Hostra University, Pace University, and Mercy College where he worked on a minor in Computer Science.

Career

Civil Engineering

Lon Safko founded Civil Consultants, a Computer Aided Design (CAD) company. The company developed engineering software for coordinate geometry, subdivision design, earthwork, highway & traffic design, and hydrology and watershed analysis widely used throughout the U.S. and by the State of New York.[2]

Lon Safko was appointed as a member of the Basalt Waste Isolation Project (BWIP) engineering team for his work with the United States Department of Energy under Westinghouse Electric Company.

Apple and Assistive Technology

Lon Safko managed two Apple Computer stores during his time at BWIP. He merged his engineering experience and Apple computing to invent SoftVoice, the world’s first voice activated, environmental control computer system for the physically disabled in 1985.[3]

He was designated a Certified Developer. He has also pioneered the computer software in the billion dollar Assistive Technology Industry.[4]

Lon Safko founded his second company Safko International, Inc., which is the result of ten years of research & development marking the progression from SoftVoice to the SenSei System.[5]

Recognition

Honors

Lon Safko is the recipient of a number of awards and distinctions that includes the following:[6]

  1. ACI-NA (Airports Council International, North America), “First Place for Creative Innovations Promotions in North America”
  1. Arizona Innovation Network’s “Innovator of the Year”
  1. Ernst & Young Magazine, Inc. “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” (twice nominated)
  1. Westinghouse “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” (twice nominated)

Museum Collections

Lon Safko has 18 of his inventions as part of the permanent collection in the Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He has more than 30,000 personal and corporate records that are in the collection of Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation.[7]

Business Venture

Companies

Lon Safko is president of Innovative Thinking, L.L.C, (www.LonSafko.com), Paper Models, Inc., (www.PaperModels.Inc.com) and Extreme Digital Marketing (www.ExtremeDigitalMarketing.com).[8]

Author

As an author, Lon Safko's works include: Gratuitous Serendipity, Life Is But A Dream (iUniverse Publishing), Build Your New House In No Time (Que Publishing), and director of marketing and technical editor for Launching Your Yahoo! Business, and Succeeding At Your Yahoo! Business (Que Publishing) in partnership with Yahoo!, The Social Media Bible (John Wiley & Sons) and The Fusion Marketing Bible (McGraw Hill).[9]

References

  1. ↑ “Lon Safko Video”.
  2. ↑ “Lon Safko Profile for Autocon 2014”.
  3. ↑ "Visionary", Tempe Magazine, September–October 1994 Retrieved on 27 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "Contributor Profile", The Best You.
  5. ↑ "Safko International, Inc. Records".
  6. ↑ "Interview with Lon".
  7. ↑ "Smithsonian Institution Research Information System".
  8. ↑ "Core Purpose".
  9. ↑ “Lon Safko's Profile on Amazon”.
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