Dr. Spohrer founded IBM's first Service Research group in 2003 at the Almaden Research Center with a focus on STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) for Service Sector innovations. He led this group to attain ten times return on investment with four IBM outstanding and eleven accomplishment awards over seven years. Working with service research pioneers from many academic disciplines, Jim advocates for Service Science, Management, Engineering, and Design (SSMED) as an integrative extended-STEM framework for global competency development, economic growth, and advancement of science. In 2000, Jim became the founding CTO of IBM’s first Venture Capital Relations group in Silicon Valley. In the mid 1990’s, he lead Apple Computer’s Learning Technologies group, where he was awarded DEST (Distinguished Engineer Scientist and Technologist). Jim received a Ph.D. in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence from Yale University and a B.S. in Physics from MIT.