# Richard Poppen

> Member, Board of Advisors at Equality California

Location: San Jose, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/richardpoppen

## Work Experience
### Member, Board of Advisors @ Equality California
Jan 2021 – Present

### Member, Board of Directors @ Equality California
Jan 2009 – Jan 2020

### Software Engineer @ Apple
Jan 2013 – Present | Cupertino CA

### Software Engineer @ Google
Jan 2011 – Jan 2013

### CTO @ deCarta
Jan 1997 – Jan 2011
•	Developed routing engine, generalization engine, multiple searching engines, and extensive libraries for integer mathematics and geospatial keying methods.  (This work has resulted in two issued patents and five additional pending patent applications.)
•	Consulted on details of many other algorithms.
•	Supported standards efforts.
•	Supported sales extensively by consulting on proposals and participating in many technical sales presentations.
•	Supervised an international algorithm R&D team in San Jose and Shanghai.
•	Helped coordinate the activities of China development team.
•	Managed patent portfolio.

deCarta was formerly Telcontar.

### Staff Scientist @ Etak, Inc.
Jan 1990 – Jan 1997
•	Developed algorithms for map data clustering, rendering, routing, and route precalculation.  (Nine patents resulted from this work.)
•	Supported standards efforts.

Etak was later acquired by Tele Atlas.

### Staff Engineer @ Calera Recognition Systems Inc.
Jan 1985 – Jan 1990
•	Developed algorithms for segmentation and classification in optical character recognition.
•	Maintained and enhanced the architectural specification for the recognition engine.  This recognition engine is at the core of virtually all OCR software that ships with scanners today.

Calera Recognition Systems Inc. was formerly The Palantir Corporation.  It was acquired by Caere Corporation, which was acquired by ScanSoft Inc., which became Nuance Communications, Inc.

### Senior engineer @ Valid Logic Systems
Jan 1984 – Jan 1985
•	Developed a language and system for optimal assignment of timing delays to elements of models of integrated circuits. 

Valid is now part of Cadence Design Systems.

### Senior engineer @ Tymshare, Inc.
Jan 1979 – Jan 1983
•	Maintained APL (A Programming Language) interpreter, designed enhancements to Tymshare's APL product.
•	Supported APL standards efforts.
•	Designed and implemented syntax and algorithms for a decision support system language.

Tymshare was later acquired by McDonnell Douglas.


## Education
### MS in mathematics
Stanford University

### BA in mathematics
Pomona College


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rpoppen
- Portfolio: http://www.decarta.com

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Source: https://flows.cv/richardpoppen
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/richardpoppen/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-10