Résumé for Marlin Eller

Education

MS, Mathematics - University of Washington, 1979
BA, Magna Cum Laude, double major Mathematics, Physics - Whitman College, 1974

Awards

Finalist, PC Magazine's Eighth Annual Award for Technical Excellence, 1991
Phi Beta Kappa, 1974
Woodward Math Fellowship, 1973

Issued Patents

US 6,201,174 - 2001
Method and system for improved tablature notation in digital music scores

US 5,889,860 - 1999
Encryption system with transaction coded decryption key

US 5,773,741 - 1998
Method and apparatus for non-sequential storage of and access to digital musical score and performance information

US 5,737,733 - 1998
Method and system for searching compressed data

US 5,710,832 - 1998
Method and system for displaying handwritten data and recognized symbols

US 5,636,297 - 1997
Method and system for recognizing a graphic object's shape, line style, and fill pattern in a pen environment

US 5,610,996 - 1997
Method and apparatus for arc segmentation in handwriting recognition

US 5,550,930 - 1996
Method and system for training a handwriting recognizer at the time of misrecognition

US 5,287,417 - 1994
Method and system for recognizing a graphic object's shape, line style, and fill pattern in a pen environment

Professional Experience

1992-present

CEO and Founder of Sunhawk Digital Music LLC, formerly Sunhawk.com

I founded Sunhawk (originally Nighthawk) while I was still working at Microsoft to both create and distribute digital music scores. I developed musical OCR software in order to input scores by scanning in paper scores, a music notation editor to correct and improve the input scores, and a viewer to display and print the final results for the customer. Originally the distribution was to be CD-ROM but as the Web developed we shifted to Internet distribution. I left Microsoft Research in 1995 to work full time on the music business. I established a production facility in Russia with 90 people to produce the music and grew the facility in the US to 85 people as well. I negotiated a contract with Warner Brothers Publications to get access to current copyrighted music and I took the company public in Feb 2000.

We attempted to grow the business into the more general area of Digital Rights Management by pursuing content categories other than sheet music and by acquiring a London based Copyright policing business and later an LA based digital video business. The market was not friendly to dotcoms in 2000 and we went through multiple rounds of layoffs and restructuring. The M&A work and the demands of a public company were taking me further and further from the music business and goals that I had originally set. As a result, in the Spring of 2001 I bought the sheet music business and all related technology and contracts from the public company and created the private entity, Sunhawk Digital Music LLC.

1982-1995

Software Development Manager - Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
Projects include (in chronological order):

Wrote CBTOMB, a translator that converts CBASIC programs to Microsoft compiled BASIC
Wrote decimal math package for BASIC compiler
Wrote floating point math package and 8087 emulator for Microsoft PASCAL and FORTRAN and C
Development lead for the team that wrote GDI, the Graphics Devices Interfaces for Microsoft Windows 1.0. A portion of this code is used on all subsequent Microsoft Windows operating systems including Windows 3.3 and Microsoft Windows 95
Wrote part of the DOS redirector for Microsoft Networks portion of OS/2
Development lead for Windows for Pen Computing environment. Managed a team of 40 people and designed all the handwriting recognition algorithms
Started the Microsoft on-line project which evolved into Microsoft MSN
Managed Core Technologies group for Microsoft Research. Responsible for video, audio, and data compression and encryption. These are key technologies for online services
Started Talisman 3-D Video accelerator hardware project

1979-1981

Visiting Instructor, Math and Computer Science - Williams College, Williamstown, MA. Taught introductory courses in FORTRAN, algorithms and data structures, and a special course in algorithms for faculty.

1975-1969

Engineer, Dunegan/Endevco, San Juan Capistrano, CA. Wrote operating systems for Interdata mini computers and custom software for non-destructive acoustic emissions testing of large vessels, such as inner nuclear reactor cores, oil and gas storage tanks.

Board Experience

In addition to being chairman of the board for my own company since its inception I am also currently on the boards of:

Civil Communications Inc. - a Tacoma, WA company that creates web based information management software for police and fire departments
Reflexive Entertainment - an Irvine, CA company that creates interactive games for the PC
Barbaric Records - a Seattle, WA progressive rock record label
Fire Donations - a Tacoma, WA charitable organization that gives aid to families of firemen that are harmed in the line of duty

Publications

Barbarians Led By Bill Gates co-authored with Jennifer Edstrom and published by Henry Holt in 1998. It was a national best seller remaining in the top ten business books on the Wall Street Journal list for 5 weeks. It has been translated into 6 different languages.

"Multiple Scattering Calculations of X-Ray Absorption Spectra," S.I. Zabinsky, J.J. Rehr, A.N. Kudinov, R.C. Alvers, M.J. Eller, Physical Review B, 1995.