John Edmond
Co-Inventor of the Blue LED, Cree Co-Founder

What were you doing in 1989? At Cree, our founders were busy commercializing the blue LED. Cree was the first company to truly commercialize the then state-of-the-art technology, and co-founder John Edmond was there every step of the way.

Twenty-two years after helping found the company, John still works on improving LED technology. He’s Cree’s director of advanced optoelectronics, where he still works in the lab on our latest innovations.

Mark McClear
Global Applications Engineering at Cree

Whether you’re in a classroom of sixth graders who want to know what LEDs can do or in a classroom of IESNA students who want to discuss lumen droop, Mark is your guy. He can break down any LED industry-topic to the basics or talk so technical your head will spin.

Mark is where the component hits the board right now—leading the applications engineering team as they work hand-in-hand with customers on the next generation of LED fixtures. Revolutionary!

Tony van de Ven
Co-Inventor of Cree TrueWhite® Technology

Just creating basic white light with LEDs wasn’t good enough for Tony van de Ven. He was unwilling to compromise on light quality. So Tony helped break barriers and co-invented Cree TrueWhite® Technology.

A revolutionary way to generate white light with LEDs, Cree TrueWhite® Technology delivers high efficiency with beautiful light characteristics and color accuracy, while maintaining color consistency.

Gerry Negley
Co-Inventor of Cree TrueWhite® Technology

Not only does Gerry know how to invent great products with LEDs, including Cree’s record-breaking TrueWhite Light, he also knows how to invent LEDs.

There are many perks to being one of the pioneers of LED technology, one of them is a reserved parking spot. Gerry’s many inventions have earned him industry-wide recognition. It has also earned him the only reserved parking spot in the Cree parking lot.

Gary Trott
LED Visionary & Co-Developer of the CR Series

Gary’s heart must have been a little empty after he invented a fluorescent troffer, because he soon saw the light – the LED light, that is! Gary realized LED lighting was the future and dedicated himself to help make it reality.

Gary is a man of many hats: Part lighting designer, part R&D geek, part LED lighting evangelist. As one of the architects of the CR troffer series, Gary is on the cutting edge of lighting.