Brad Holtz is a founding member and until his semi-retirement in 2023, the chief nexus officer (CNO) of startup Pattern Computer Inc. Holtz advises and assists the CEO with developing, communicating, executing, and sustaining strategic initiatives. He was responsible for recruiting and for the relationship capital of Pattern, cultivating relationships with the company’s investors, boards, supplier chain, developers, and partners, and was responsible for Pattern’s social capital and its business-network portfolio.
During his tenure at Pattern, Holtz developed the idea for what has become Pattern’s ProSpectral, initiated as a 3-second test for COVID, based on an evaluation of hyperspectral imaging of saliva, using Pattern’s advance machine learning engines. Holtz also led Pattern’s work on “Machine Learning Prediction of Adenovirus D8 Conjunctivitis Complications from Viral Whole-Genome Sequence” with the University of Washington Department of Ophthalmology. Holtz also served as primary lead for Pattern’s IRB and government contracts, submitting for DARPA, BARDA, and DoE grants.
Holtz has spent most of his career focused on understanding the market dynamics of the design and engineering software industry. He specializes in trends in engineering, analytics and analysis, business intelligence, brainstorming, cross-vertical pollination, and the mid-term and long-term implications these trends might have on industry vision, corporate strategies, and customer realities.
Since 1999, as co-founder and CEO of Cyon Research Corp., Holtz built and led a team of industry analysts focused on the field of software for design and engineering. In that role, he also led the creation of COFES: Congress on the Future of Engineering Software. This three-day annual invitation-only event brings together the leadership of the engineering software community to interact in a collaborative environment to shape the future of the engineering software industry. In 2017, Holtz led the successful spinout of COFES to the newly formed nonprofit COFES Institute.
In his capacity as CEO of Cyon Research, Holtz also founded the DaS Symposium and the Green Keystone Alliance, both of which focused on advancing sustainability reporting standards and coordinating efforts for better transactions in design and manufacturing. Holtz also created and mentored “Maieutic Parataxis” at COFES, where he mentored the creation of 5-minute presentations of more than 100 distinct, impactful ideas.
Holtz is also the co-founder of the Analysis, Simulation, & Systems Engineering Software Strategies (ASSESS) Initiative, a broad-reaching multi-industry initiative with a primary goal to facilitate a revolution of enablement that will vastly increase the availability and utility of engineering simulation. Holtz was the founder, a board member, and chief strategist of the Center for Understanding Change (C4UC), a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to the exploration of alternatives in large, complex systems of systems, particularly around critical infrastructure. In his role with (C4UC) he presented at the Club of Rome, Global Action Summit, and the first ever joint NATO/EU – SCO Think-Tank Meeting in Bucharest, dealing with topics as diverse as energy infrastructure, critical infrastructure, and resilience of food security.
Holtz has served as chairman of the board of directors for Cyon Research, for The Center for Understanding Change and for its B-company spinout, C4UC, Inc., and for The CAD Society. He is a former member of the advisory boards of Sustainable Minds, Inforbix, LEDAS, and others. Prior to Cyon Research, Holtz was president of WBH Associates and founded ZEM Press. Holtz is an Emeritus Architect, licensed in Maryland for more than 40 years, and is a member of ACM Computer Graphics Pioneers.
Holtz’s incisive views on the engineering software industry are based on a keen understanding of new technologies and years of careful observation of their impact on design, engineering, architecture, and manufacturing. His influential opinions about the future of software have appeared in all the major engineering software industry publications. He has been a featured speaker at industry events on six continents. He also developed and maintains the Cyon Research Stock Index, which represents a financial guide to this sector of the high-tech economy. The virtual index has consistently outperformed the Nasdaq.
Holtz’s career began with the founding of WBH Associates, a strategic planning and market analysis firm that became known for its expertise in the CAD industry. He later combined WBH Associates with Orr Associates and The Yares Organization to form Cyon Research in 1999, where he has served as the CEO since its inception. He also played a key role in shaping the A/E/C SYSTEMS conference, one of the CAD industry’s most respected and successful events.
Holtz is a trusted authority to Wall Street – his insights have made him a highly valued adviser to the financial world and to industry executives. In addition to the investment and legal communities, his customers have included Autodesk, Bentley, Ford, Gensler, Intergraph, Siemens, SolidWorks, Xerox, and the US Department of Commerce.
Holtz is the author of The CAD Rating Guide, published in five editions between 1987 and 1997. He has written many articles about engineering software, including 3D computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), finite-element analysis, product data management, engineering workstations, and 3D graphics adapters. He has provided editorial direction for both major newsletters serving the CAD/CAM industry – Engineering Automation Report and Computer Aided Design Report – which Cyon Research acquired and published until they were spun out in 2007.
Holtz graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Washington University (St. Louis). He has a deep interest in complexity and chaos, which is apparent in his hobbies, which include playing with large sets of magnets and deep dives into the Mandelbrot set.
Character:
Brad Holtz is a respected leader known for his integrity, his ability to quickly get to the heart of an issue and ask the right questions, his dedication to advancing the not just the engineering software industry, and for fostering innovation by connecting across domains.
Knowledge:
With more 40 years of experience across multiple domains, Holtz possesses not just deep expertise in CAD, CAE, PLM, BIM, and IPD technologies and markets, offering valuable insights into their impact across industries, but also experience with the implications of advance machine learning as applied in both industry and biological domains, as well as dealing with human subject research, IBDs, government grants, fundraising, compliance, and fundraising. Well known for his ability to derive insight from one domain and apply it to a new domain.
Strategic:
Holtz has spent his entire career focused on strategic implications, from implications of decisions made by individual firms as they apply to customer and market direction and dynamics, to the potential implications of various choices facing individuals and firms. He has made a field of study of context, complexity, and implications of potential paths forward.
Communication:
A sought-after speaker and commentator, Holtz effectively communicates complex concepts, industry trends and forecasts through media, conferences, and publications worldwide, having given invited presentations and keynotes on 6 continents.
