Layne is a member of the Idaho Technology Council

Introducing Steve Wood, V.P., Global Services & Support, Ericsson


Steve recently joined the Board of Trustees of the ITC, representing Ericsson. We invite you to get to know Steve Wood.


Describe the business/organization you work for:

Ericsson is a global leader in information and communication technology (ICT) providing hardware, software, and services for connectivity to the largest telecommunications companies in the world. Cradlepoint is the global leader in wireless WAN connectivity providing hardware, software and services to the largest enterprise customers in the world. Cradlepoint became part of the Ericsson family in 2020 and is part of the Enterprise Wireless Solutions business unit providing wireless WAN, security and private cellular networking solutions to enterprises around the globe.



What sets this business apart from others in the industry?

Ericsson's Enterprise Wireless Solutions is at the forefront of technology and the paradigm shift that has and is occurring in cellular communications' evolution from a voice connection for the masses to key data connection for the enterprise. Ericsson is uniquely positioned in providing solutions to both the telecommunications providers as well as the enterprises who consume those telecommunications services. As such, Ericsson solutions have the ability to provide unique value by integrating end to end. Ericsson is a technology leader in cellular and is bringing that leadership to the solutions for both telecommunications providers as well as enterprises at a level of integration that is very difficult for others to match and keep pace.


Share something you love about Idaho, and the community.

While I was raised and educated in Wyoming, my entire professional career has taken place in Idaho. However, my Idaho roots run deep. I spent summers working on the family farm in the Malad Valley splitting time between the dairy operation morning and night, raising hay & grain, running range cattle as well as a calf each summer to take to the fair to make my wages for the season. I learned the value of honest, hard work and pulling together as a community to accomplish larger goals. It was here I learned to lend a hand and not point a finger. It was here I learned to be humble and hungry or surely I would be if I weren't. I love our Idahoan spirit of the west wherein we aren't afraid to make bold choices and take risks and work hard to accomplish audacious goals.


What inspired you to join the ITC?

I have been very blessed to have had wonderful teachers and mentors along my journey. One of those mentors and recent ITC Hall of Fame inductee, George Mulhern reached out to me and suggested I think about joining the ITC. We had talked about giving back and sharing the benefits of the knowledge gained along the way with other Idahoans. I attended the 2024 induction ceremony and the energy and commitment from so many to a higher goal solidified my decision. I am hopeful that I will be able to share something that helps others as my past and current mentors have done for me. I hope that in doing so, I make them proud that their time they invested in me and my growth was time well spent and together we have furthered technology is This Great State.


What are you looking forward to the most about serving as a board member of the ITC?

I truly am looking at this opportunity to give back to the State and the communities who were seminal in my professional and technical success. I have been a part of start ups as a founder and an early employee as well as more mature companies in hyper-growth. I have also been part of companies that failed to make key decisions that unfavorably changed their trajectory. I want to be able to impart the knowledge and experience that I have gained to further the causes of the ITC and promote and further the burgeoning technology ecosystem Idaho enjoys. In my opinion and experience, Idaho technology and technologists are capable of collaborating with and/or successfully competing with any of our peers in technology the world over. I'm hoping to further that reality in some small way.


What do you like to do in your free time, or anything else you would like to share with our network?

I am active. I love the outdoors, the mountains and the rivers. I hike and backpack. I enjoy fishing, especially fly fishing. There is nothing better than drifting with my father through a hatch on The South Fork. I am an avid fitness junkie and can be found at the gym most days. I am excited for another ski season and look forward to hitting the slopes with my son. I still have hopes of becoming a decent powder skier albeit time is betting against me. I love college sports even amidst the significant changes in the past years. I am in therapy (wink wink) working through having a daughter at the University of Oregon and cheering for the Ducks who narrowly beat our Broncos. I am a classic car guy and love taking my own classic for jaunts through the Idaho mountain roads and visiting the wonderful Idahoans in small towns along the way that remind me of my times growing up and working in Malad. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you think I can be of assistance and help further the causes of the ITC.


Connect with Steve on LinkedIn HERE

Check out Ericsson on their website HERE

Check out Ericsson on YouTube HERE

Meet Mel Pint

by Tim Munkres • 7 October 2026
Introducing: Mel Pint, Founder & CEO, OpulX Media LLC Describe the business/organization you work for: OpulX Media LLC is an Idaho-registered live events company and a sister company of OpulenceX Inc., the marketplace where artists sell their work and keep earning royalties when it resells. OpulX Media produces art, fashion and technology showcases built around augmented reality and digital collectibles. Our first production is The Digital Loom: Intersecting Realities at Boise Centre on November 14, 2026: an AR runway, an exhibition of international artists whose every work is registered as a digital twin, and a free afternoon built around The Loom Youth Prize, a statewide art competition for Idaho kids and teens. It is planned as an annual Boise event, with a Honolulu edition in April 2027. What inspired you to start your own business, or why did you decide to work for this specific organization? I watched artists sell a piece once and never see another dollar from it, while the technology that fixes that already existed and nobody was putting it in front of the people who make things. OpulenceX Inc built the tools. OpulX Media exists because tools alone do not change anything; a room full of people watching a garment come alive through their own phone, standing next to a painting a nine-year-old made, does. Boise has a technology community, an arts community and a fashion community, and they rarely stand in the same room. I wanted to build the night where they do. What sets this business apart from others in the industry? Most media companies build audiences and rent them to advertisers. We build a creator economy and stand inside it with the creators. What challenges have you faced as a business owner or employee, and how did you overcome them? Being new. A first-year event with a technology company behind it has to earn standing in the arts community before anyone will put their name next to it. We did that the slow way: a venue contract before any letter went out, a judged youth prize with real cash and real exhibition space, terms for artists that put 70% of every sale in their hands. Joining the Idaho Technology Council was part of the same answer: be inside the community before asking anything of it. What advice would you give to someone looking to join your industry? Decide what you will not do before you decide what you will. Then find the person in your community who has done the hard part for years and ask them how, before you tell them what you are building. About the Idaho Technology Council The Idaho Technology Council (ITC) is a member-based organization that champions innovation and collaboration to grow Idaho’s economy through technology. Representing a dynamic and growing community of entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and policymakers, ITC connects vision with action to position Idaho as a hub for innovation and opportunity. Learn more at www.idahotechcouncil.org .  Connect with Mel Pint on LinkedIn HERE Learn More about OpulX Media HERE

Meet RT Williams

by Tim Munkres • 10 September 2026
Introducing: RT Williams, Founder & Energy Engineer, Pathline Foundry Describe the business/organization you work for: Pathline Foundry is an independent energy consulting and software firm in Meridian, Idaho. I run the gamut from benchmarking and energy audits to custom software for energy strategy, management, and optimization. It's a niche offering that's widely applicable across many industries. One engineer, start to finish. See where your energy is going, so you can make a smarter decision about where it goes next. What inspired you to start your own business, or why did you decide to work for this specific organization? I want to be the person who stays and partners with those who need it most. I've been doing energy engineering since 2017, and I've kept seeing the same pattern. A building gets an audit report, the report goes on a shelf, and nothing changes. Pathline Foundry grew out of that pattern, and I build software for the same reason: the findings need somewhere to live once the engagement is over, or they end up back on the shelf. Energy gets treated as a fixed cost, a line on the bill you can't do anything about. It isn't. There's real money sitting in waste and inefficiency, and most of the people who could act on it have no spare bandwidth and limited technical staff. I wanted to make that easy to see and easy to act on. What sets this business apart from others in the industry? There's no sales team and no handoff to a junior analyst. You talk to the person doing the engineering, and that same person is still there when it comes time to implement. I build the software side myself too, so the analysis, the modeling, and the tools a client ends up using all come from one place. Where it fits, I take a share of the savings instead of a flat fee, so the work is built to pay for itself. I'm a PhD engineer and a Certified Energy Manager. I write the work so a decision-maker can understand it and an engineer can act on it. What challenges have you faced as a business owner or employee, and how did you overcome them? Starting a business in a state where nobody knows you is a slow problem, and there's no clever fix for it. My family and I moved here in 2025, and I spent a lot of that first year in rooms where I knew one person, or none. What surprised me is that it made the actual work better. I used to lead with what I found in a building. Now I ask what somebody is trying to decide first, because a room full of strangers teaches you quickly that nobody cares what you know until they know why it matters to them. That turns out to be most of the job. Idaho has been more welcoming than I expected. Almost everything I've built here started with someone making an introduction, and I look forward to growing my work to support the community that made room for me. What advice would you give to someone looking to join your industry? Go into the buildings. You can learn modeling and software anywhere, but you can't learn how a facility actually runs from a spreadsheet. Spend time with the people who operate it. They'll tell you things no data set contains, and more often than not, they already know where the waste is. About the Idaho Technology Council The Idaho Technology Council (ITC) is a member-based organization that champions innovation and collaboration to grow Idaho’s economy through technology. Representing a dynamic and growing community of entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and policymakers, ITC connects vision with action to position Idaho as a hub for innovation and opportunity. Learn more at www.idahotechcouncil.org . Connect with RT Williams on LinkedIn HERE Learn More about Pathline Foundry HERE

Idaho Technology Council Announces 2026 Hall of Fame Inductees, Idavation™ Award Finalists and Keynote Speaker Gary Sorrentino, CIO, Zoom

9 September 2026
Idaho Technology Council Announces 2026 Hall of Fame Inductees, Idavation™ Award Finalists and Keynote Speaker Gary Sorrentino, CIO, Zoom