Just a few months after retiring from his post as president of Wonderware, Mike Bradley Sr., 62, jumped back into the fray as CEO of Apprion, an industrial wireless network provider. Bradley succeeds Apprion founder Stephen Lambright, 44, who is moving into the role of vice president of marketing and customer service.
The industrial wireless space is beginning to gain traction as automation players such as Invensys — an Apprion partner — and others, including Emerson and Honeywell, roll out solutions that complement their industrial networks.
Lambright, who foresees a period of rapid growth at the privately held company, went searching for an individual with industrial experience who could move the company forward, he said.
"I'm a first-time CEO and my learning curve was going to have to be faster than the company growth, and I'm not sure that was humanly possible," Lambright told Managing Automation. "I wanted someone who had been down this path before, who knows where the bumps are and can take us to the next level. When I found out we could get Mike's experience on board here, it was a no-brainer."
Bradley announced his resignation from Wonderware, a business unit of Invensys plc, in November 2007, after five years as the software company's president. At that time, Sudipta Bhattacharya, an ex-SAP executive who had joined the company three months earlier, was appointed as Bradley's successor.
Industry observers saw the changing of the guard at Wonderware as an important step in the company's future.
"Based on Mike Bradley's feelings of where Wonderware needs to be in 10 years from now, it makes sense to point to someone who has a blend of understanding" because, ultimately, plant floor systems will have to interact with ERP, supply chain, logistics, and other business systems, Craig Resnick, an analyst with ARC Advisory Group, told Managing Automation in an interview last year.
Similarly, Apprion looks to Bradley to leverage his experience with industrial applications and control architectures to move wireless into mainstream automation. Bradley will focus on building out new channel and solution partners, as well as moving the company into new geographies, he said.
"I believe industrial wireless will be one of the fastest-growing segments in all of industrial applications," Bradley said in an interview. "My skills can help accelerate that growth."
It will be a lot of work to move Apprion into the forefront of what could become a highly competitive space, but Bradley — who said he just wasn't ready for retirement — is up for the challenge. "This is tremendous and exciting. ... Too much golfing would have been bad for me."
This article originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Managing Automation.