Astute readers will have noticed a new byline cropping up on Xconomy for the last week or so. It’s our new Seattle editor, Greg Huang. Seattle? Yeah, that’s what I said—more on that very soon. But Greg is filing stories from the Boston home office before he heads west so we thought you should know a little bit about him.
For lack of a more eloquent way to put this, Greg totally rocks. With a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT he’ll be duking it out with Wade (himself an MIT PhD) for the title of office brainiac. And, also like Wade, he’s got the killer combination of a deep knowledge of technology with real chops and experience as a journalist—he’s done stints at New Scientist and Technology Review, and was Bob’s co-author on Guanxi, the 2006 book about Microsoft’s Beijing research lab and global competitiveness.
Also like Wade, Greg decided it was a good idea to take a week off almost immediately after starting at Xconomy. (Lest you think Greg and Wade are actually the same person, click here.) His excuse trumps Wade’s (vacation) for originality, though: He’s heading out “on tour” with his fantastically quirky band, Honest Bob and the Factory to Dealer Incentives. Founded by a pair of guys who now work at Harmonix and Cognex, Honest Bob was one of the original inspirations for our Battle of the Tech Bands in January. And even though “scheduling difficulties” prevented the band from actually showing up for the event, we still think they’re pretty damn cool—imagine what Jonathan Richman would sound like if he had a degree in computer science and you get the basic idea. So if you’re going to be in New York tonight, Burlington, VT, on Monday, or Cambridge, MA, next Saturday, by all means go check them out. And tell Greg he’s got a story due.