Please Welcome Helder Antunes to the Manufacturing Industry Blog

It is with great pleasure that I introduce a key member of the Cisco Connected Industries Group (Cisco CIG), Helder Antunes.

Helder Antunes is Managing Director, Smart Connected Vehicle, CIG . He  is a 15-year Cisco veteran with a background in both network security and the automotive industry.

Helder is currently working closely with all the global automobile manufacturers, in order to explore a partnership between Cisco and the OEMs in defining the next generation Smart Connected Vehicle platform, a key initiative within Cisco's "Internet of Things" strategy.
Outside of Cisco, Antunes is also a General Partner at Pereira Ventures and a counselor to the Regional Government of the Azores, Portugal.

Helder is no stranger to the cutting edge of the automotive industry. He raced cars for many years and designed some of the early data acquisition systems for race cars. On a personal level, Helder was born on the island of Terceira (Azores, Portuguese Territory) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and traveled to Mozambique, Macau, and other former Portuguese colonies before his family settled in Rhode Island.

President Anibal Cavaco Silva, Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Antunes at Cisco HQ, during the 2011 Portuguese Presidential Visit to California.

He has been published in many industry publications on Automotive and other topics including:

• Cisco Wants to Drive Your Car ... Onto the Internet (Wired, September 2012)
• 'Connected' cars would aim to keep drivers in the loop (PHYS ORG, November 2012)
• What Will Cisco Network Next? Your Car, the New Computing Frontier (SiliconANGLE, September 2012)

Antunes has also received many awards for his work at Cisco and with the Portuguese government and state.

• 2012 COTEC Portuguese Diaspora Entrepreneurial Innovation Award
• 2008 CIO 100 Award
• 2004 Cisco Pioneer Award in Technological Innovation
• 2003 Cisco Teamwork of the Year Award

Welcome Helder!
Check out his first blog by clicking  here