About Me – Mark Milgrew

Timeline

My journey has helped me to develop a unique blend of experience in education, technology, and business.

I lean into this experience every day as an entrepreneur creating and teaching simple tech and business solutions.

From undergraduate study, to postgraduate study, to working in academia, in Scotland.

To helping to develop a startup, to working in corporate, to starting my own business, in the United States.

Take a look at my timeline below.

1996

I started a B.Eng. degree in Electronics & Software Engineering at the University of Glasgow.

1999

I worked as a Software Engineer for General Electric in Livingston, Scotland.

I changed my degree from B.Eng. to M.Eng. so that I could also study business.

2000

I worked as a Software Engineer for General Electric in Melbourne, Florida.

2001

I graduated with a first class M.Eng. degree with honors.

I started a Ph.D. degree in Electronics & Electrical Engineering at the University of Glasgow.

I invented a semiconductor chip technology for healthcare applications.

2005

I completed all of the practical work for a Ph.D. degree.

I took a Research Assistant position to develop high-speed electronic circuits.

2006

I got a promotion and moved to a Research Fellow & Technologist position to establish a new Glasgow Electronics Design Center, and to further develop my semiconductor chip technology.

2007

I finished writing my thesis and graduated with a Ph.D. degree.

2008

I moved from Scotland to Connecticut to productize my semiconductor chip technology with a new startup company called Ion Torrent.

Two months after my arrival in Connecticut, we showed that the chip technology could be used successfully for high-speed next-generation sequencing.

2009

We worked on developing the Ion Personal Genome Machine sequencing system with chip and reagent kits.

2010

Ion Torrent was sold to Life Technologies for $725M.

I transitioned to Life Technologies to work in a technical leadership position as a Senior Staff Engineer.

I worked on the chip technology development for the Ion Proton sequencing system.

2011

I received the prestigious award from Life Technologies for Outstanding Contribution in Engineering.

I co-wrote and published a paper on next-generation sequencing technology in the highly-distinguished, international journal, Nature.

2013

Life Technologies was acquired for $13.6B by Thermo Fisher, which is a Fortune 500 company with a market cap of more than $200B.

I transitioned to Thermo Fisher to continue working as a Senior Staff Engineer.

2015

I got a promotion and moved from technical to people leadership to work as Director of Engineering.

I led a team located in Connecticut and California to develop the chip technology for the Ion Torrent Genexus and Ion GeneStudio S5 sequencing systems.

2019

I started part-time with my own business.

I founded Digital Freedom with a mission to make digital technology accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or experience.

2022

I left my corporate job and went full-time with my own business.

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