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Profile: Hoyt M. Layson Jr.By FRED WRIGHT Jr
© St. Petersburg Times, NEW POSITION: Chief operating officer, LifeCare Technologies Inc., Clearwater. PREVIOUS POSITION: Consultant, IT department, Verizon, Clearwater. As an entrepreneur for the past 25 years, as well as a consultant, Hoyt M. Layson Jr. has taken on a variety of challenges, from starting an online catalog company to inventing a system to monitor criminals on parole. His latest position, as chief operating officer for LifeCare Technologies in Clearwater, continues his interest in high-tech computer software and corporate management. He will be in charge of about 60 employees and oversee the daily operations of the LifeCare Technologies facility and all research and development activities. LifeCare Technologies creates and markets point-of-care systems that help monitor, record and compile a patient's tests, records and medications during a hospital visit. The data travels with the patient throughout his or her visit, and the information is available on the hospital's intranet for in-house use as well as for access by the patient's personal physician from home or office. In recent years, Layson has been a consultant with the information technology department of Verizon and with Honeywell Space Systems in Clearwater. Before that, he was executive vice president of a company he founded, Pro Tech Monitoring in Clearwater, which creates systems for tracking released criminals using the Global Positioning System, or GPS. For 13 years prior to starting Pro Tech Monitoring, Layson was a senior staff engineer with Honeywell. He also worked 10 years at Xerox Research in Rochester, N.Y., where he developed several inventions. As a self-described "Air Force brat," Layson has lived throughout the country but has called Florida home for the past 25 years. His Florida ties go back even further: His great-grandfather arrived in the state with Henry Flagler in the 1800s and helped build the first railroad down Florida's east coast, all the way to Key West. Layson holds four U.S. and international patents and has a fifth pending. He has been nominated this year for the National Medal of Technology Award by the Department of Commerce for his inventions in the criminal justice system. How has he accomplished so much by age 52? "I run on about four hours' sleep. I've always been that way," he said. "It's either a blessing or a curse." Layson points to a singular experience in his life that turned him in the direction of computers, technology and research: seeing the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. "Up until that time, we had Mothra, Rodan, Godzilla (popular monsters in Japanese films)," he said. "When I sat through (2001), that was the first movie I actually waited to see the credits for. I had to know who were the people who contributed to this movie. "That was it for me," he said. "I had to be involved at some point in my life in the space program. That eventually led me to go to NASA." When Layson saw 2001, he was a couple of years out of high school with only a few college courses to his credit. After serving four years in the Air Force, Layson used the GI Bill to seek his degrees in technology: a bachelor's degree in computer science and a master's degree in engineering, both at the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology. One of Layson's most recent entrepreneurial efforts was creating www.audio-warehouse.com, which sells car and home audio systems via the Internet. Started with a partner in 1995, Layson said the site grosses several million dollars in sales annually. Layson, who lives in Clearwater, is married and has two children.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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