Dr. William J. Perry joined the Fabrinet board of directors in May of last year. In the general talks that preceded his appointment, he laid out in very precise terms what he believed would be the scope and likely duration of the global recession. His predictions proved extraordinarily accurate. This foresight and business acumen, honed by a unique career engaging with world and business leaders and executive service in private and public sectors, has made Perry one of the most sought-after business consultants of our time.

While Dr. Perry’s service as undersecretary of defense in the ‘70’s and secretary of defense in the ‘90’s is well known, his achievements in the years prior to and after serving in these posts are also considerable. After serving in the Army, he began his career at General Telephone and Electronics, where he engaged in early signal analysis and processing research. He then moved on to found Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory, Inc. ESL, where he served as president for 13 years. Shortly after his appointment as undersecretary of defense, TRW acquired ESL. After returning to Palo Alto, Ca. from Washington, Perry founded and served as chairman of Technology Strategies and Alliances, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. In addition to his work as a businessman and entrepreneur, he was also involved in the financial world, as executive vice president of the investment banking firm, Hambrecht & Quist.

His awards - too numerous to list, include the presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States; the Order of the Rising Sun (Japan) and Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire (U.K.). Throughout his career, he has retained academic and research involvement, today serving as the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor at Stanford University, with a joint appointment at Freeman Spogli institute (FSI) for International Studies and the School of Engineering. He is a senior fellow at FSI and serves as co-director of the Preventive Defense Project. He holds a B.S., M.S., and a Ph.D in mathematics.

Perhaps as a result of his multi-faceted career, Dr. Perry is particularly interested in business and projects that engage in and can benefit from international collaboration and cooperation. Perry believes that the most successful companies take advantage of smart thinking from multiple sources or locations and continuously reinvent themselves accordingly. “Fabrinet has a collaboration-centric model,” said Perry. “Direct collaboration between a customer’s product development team and Fabrinet’s product manufacturing experts is encouraged and the result is often innovation with significant mutual benefit that neither side could have anticipated individually.”

Another personal research focus of Perry’s is in defining and supporting the qualities of a great CEO. “CEO’s must be visionary. Their role is to lead their company, not necessarily manage day-to-day operations. A CEO must constantly re-evaluate strategy and push employees to stretch the limits on what they do best. “