User:Dodgetherocks/Surya K. Jayaweera

Surya K. Jayaweera is an American entrepreneur, inventor, and mentor. He is the founder and CEO of two companies: Wolfetech Development Corporation and GXB Interactive Corporation. He is married to Corinne (maiden name Raef) and the father to three children.

Career
Jayaweera dreamed of becoming an inventor since his childhood. He graduated from Webb High School and attended Harvey Mudd College to study biology, engineering, and humanities. During his studies, he helped found the school’s Robotics Design Team and helped with the creation of, Johnny VI, a computer-guided robot that was the school’s first entry into the Society of Automotive Engineers Walking Machine Decathlon. It was also the first entry to successfully complete the course in 1996.

Wolfetech Development Corporation
Before he graduated with a B.S. in Engineering, he chose to pursue entrepreneurship in November 1996. Jayaweera devised the goal for an Internet centric company after he read various magazines in the park. He wanted a portable device which could access the World Wide Web for “immediate access to important yet succinct bit of information.” Two days later, he drove to Las Vagas and attended that year’s COMDEX, a computer expo and computer trade show. Jayaweera pitched his prototype for two-way pagers to the corporate representatives of Motorola, who later signed a deal for his software.

His idea was used for the Motorola Page Writer, a portable digital device for visual Internet browsing. Jayaweera founded Wolfetech with a group of close colleagues from Harvey Mudd College in 1997 from a collective savings of approximately $12,000.

The company’s flagship software was PocketGenie, the first third party wireless commercial application for Motorola and Research in Motion (BlackBerry). It was considered an invaluable tool for business executives and pager enthusiasts as a replacement for laptops. Its success led to Wolfetech partnering with several companies for access to their online databases. By 1998, PocketGenie made Wolfetech into a multi-million dollar competitor within the wireless market of Southern California.

GXB Interactive Corporation
In 2005, Jayaweera founded GXB Interactive to provide "an engaging learning tool" for students. He served as executive producer for the first set of curriculum-based educational software for the GameBoy Advance, Math Patrol: The Kleptoid Threat and Word Safari: The Friendship Totems. Jayaweera presented both games to elementary school students in classrooms with positive reactions. Math Patrol: The Kleptoid Threat was awarded the Best Media Award by iParenting in 2008.

Other IPs, such as Beat The SAT and One World Spanish, were developed and planned for release on the Nintendo DS but were canceled.

Their latest product, Arosica MusicMaster, is available on Google Play.

Other Activities
Jayaweera has also been a public speaker, guest lecturer, judge, and advisor at several universities, a few of which include Claremont Graduate University, Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, and University of Southern California. He taught summer courses for robotics and engineering at Webb High School in Claremont.

Jayaweera also worked within the Consumer Strategy & Business Development Group at RIM and Head of Strategic New Business Development & Service Innovations at Samsung - Media Solutions Center America.

He has been the network president for Tech Coast Angels and remains a board member.