CAD Society Names Leadership and Lifetime Acheivement Award Winners

By DE Editors

The CAD Society today has announced that Michael Payne is the winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Ping Fu, CEO and president of Geomagic, is winner of its Leadership Award.

The CAD Society Awards acknowledge the contributions made by individuals that have affected and developed the CAD, engineering,  manufacturing, and architecture software industries. The Lifetime Achievement award recognizes a lifetime of outstanding technical and business contributions to the CAD industry. The Leadership award is presented for outstanding technical and business leadership in the CAD industry, and focus and dedication to the needs of CAD users.

Payne was director of development for Prime Computer, then co-founded Parametric Technology Corp. (PTC) in 1985 where he was vice president of development. He then moved on to be a co-founder of SolidWorks in 1994 as executive vice president of R&D, and in 1999, as chief technology officer for Dassault Systemes. He moved into the CEO spot at the company’s recently acquired Spatial Corp. Payne moved to SpaceClaim in 2005 as CEO and a co-founder, and is currently chairman of the company’s board.

“It is evident from Mike’s resume alone that his influence in bringing both disruptive technologies and the companies that deliver them is considerable,” says Rachael Taggart, president, The CAD Society. “The ability to innovate, develop, and deliver technology is a huge challenge but he also had the insight to build wildly successful and sustaining companies that have transformed the industry. Mike deserves this award in recognition of everything that he has done and continues to do.”

Fu co-founded Geomagic and has led its growth in 3D scan processing software. Under Fu’s leadership, Geomagic has earned six patents for streamlining the process of transforming 3D scan data into high-quality parametric CAD models. 

Before starting Geomagic, Fu was Director of Visualization at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where she initiated and managed the NCSA Mosaic software project that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer.

“Ping’s list of achievements in developing innovative and successful software, as well as inspiring a new generation of engineers with her technology, is unmatched in the industry,” says Terry Wohlers,  president of Wohlers Associates. “Her tireless drive for design and manufacturing excellence and her performance as a top business leader make her the perfect choice for this award.”

For more information, visit The CAD Society.

Sources:  Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.