John Schneiter

John Schneiter

CEO Emeritus, Board Chairman, Co-Founder

Dr. John Schneiter recently transitioned into the CEO Emeritus role at Free Form Fibers while maintaining his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He is an experienced high technology entrepreneur. He co-founded GlobalSpec, a “vertical search engine” for engineers, in 1996 and served as President for ten years, helping to grow the company from a four person startup to a 225 person leader in the engineering information market. Under his leadership GlobalSpec was twice granted the “Model of Excellence Award” by InfoCommerce and was named in the “25 Companies to Watch” list by Cahners. Prior to GlobalSpec he spent a dozen years at the GE Corporate Research and Development Center where he was acting manager of the Control Systems Program. His early career included Assistant Reactor Engineer at CT Yankee Nuclear Power, Reservoir Simulation and Development Engineer at Exxon Production Research, Senior Mechanical Engineer at GTE Sylvania, and Draper Fellow at Draper Labs at MIT.

Dr. Schneiter is a director of Free Form Fibers and is on a number of advisory boards. In 2008 he received the Tech Valley Entrepreneur of the Year award for his work in GlobalSpec, Veratag, and the many early stage technology companies he has helped with guidance and advice. In 2016 he was inducted into the University of Connecticut Academy of Distinguished Engineers. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds twenty seven patents.