His current effort is Scaeva Technologies , an ambitious startup conceived to protect the creative work of musicians and filmmakers from the dark world of digital piracy .

Steve ’ s wife and business partner , Wendy , named the company after one of Julius Caesar ’ s legendary centurions , Marcus Cassius Scaeva , to convey the robust nature of its patented technology .

Despite today ’ s low-cost and dead-simple options to stream or download songs and movies legally , piracy is still on the rise . It ’ s a thorny problem for artists struggling to preserve the authenticity and economic value of original works .

A Common Thread in a Diverse Career

Steve ’ s career has taken several turns through very different industries , but as he explains it , a common thread ties everything together .

It all began when he was a young boy growing up in a small midwestern town . A neighbor woman named Olive was suffering from Lou Gehrig ’ s disease . Her struggle with the debilitating disease brought out Steve ’ s inventive side .

“ As Olive grew worse , she couldn ’ t talk or walk . I took an old Atari computer , developed motion-sensing and voice synthesizer software , and hooked it up to some speakers . It was primitive , but it allowed her to communicate by interacting with a touchpad . It was just a little way of helping her stay connected with her loved ones .”

That experience of using technology to address an unmet need stayed with Steve throughout his life .

During the 1970s and 80s , he worked his way up to a senior executive position in the technology division at American Airlines where he worked on SABRE , which became the airline industry ’ s first automation platform .

“ SABRE disrupted the industry with a faster and far more efficient way to manage airline reservations .”

On the heels of that success , Steve decided to quit his job and move his family to the East Coast so he could sharpen his leadership skills at the Wharton School of Business .

“ I ’ d moved to Philadelphia before going through the traditional application process and the school admissions people weren ’ t going to accept me . ‘ If not this year , I ’ ll just try again next year ,’ I said . It was probably my sheer determination to study there that got me in .”

From Airlines to Healthcare

After graduation , Steve shifted his focus to healthcare technology and took the reins as Vice President of Technology and Software at UnitedHealthcare .

“ There were enormous challenges . I was hoping to replicate what had been achieved in automating the airline industry , in healthcare . For ten years we focused on building new systems to help tackle the high cost and complexity of healthcare delivery .”

From there , Steve was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Healtheon , which ultimately merged with WebMD . After that he launched Oncoverse , a real-time online collaboration platform for cancer diagnostics , which quickly sold to a pharmaceutical company .

“ Looking back , I had participated in more than a dozen mergers and acquisitions , turnarounds , company reorganizations , and an IPO . The 1980s and 90s were a period of extraordinary growth and tech innovation with electronic health records , surgical information systems , care team coordination , and personalized medicine .”

Room to Breathe in South County

During the early 2000s , Steve left Silicon Valley to find some breathing room in South County .

“ I wanted to own some land , live near a small town , but not too far from the airport because business requires a lot of travel . Gilroy was perfect .”

“ No sooner had I found a place and moved in than I looked out the back window to see a stranger riding a horse in my arena ! I learned that she had a business buying and selling horses , and my neighbor , who sells hay , had suggested she ride in the arena , which hadn ’ t been used in a while . She was delightful , so of course I said , ‘ You can ride here any time you like !’ That ’ s how I met Wendy , and we were married two years later .” As Steve settled into married life , he did some soul searching about his career .

“ I kept thinking , what ’ s next ? Another healthcare company ? Where can I have an impact ? Looking back , it ’ s funny how that thinking led me to Scaeva Technologies .”

Music to His Ears

“ I ’ ve always loved music . As a college freshman I majored in music before switching to technology , and I played saxophone and sang for years . Of our adult kids , Wendy ’ s daughter shares that love of music . We ’ ve watched her work hard to build a career in music and looked for ways to be supportive . It got me thinking about how piracy made it tough for musicians to protect their work and livelihood in a digital world .”

Around that same time , a colleague introduced him to Geoff Boyd , a Cambridgeeducated scientist for whom Steve quickly developed a high level of respect . Geoff held a patent for an algorithm to encrypt and decrypt ( scramble and unscramble ) digital content . Steve thought it could be used to protect music without distorting it .

“ No musician or music producer is going to use technology that alters the original work in any way . I coded encryption software algorithms using Jeff ’ s advanced mathematics , tested it , and it worked . I now had a way to protect the art of music and cinema industry professionals , which led to the founding of Scaeva Technologies with Geoff as part of the team .”

Estimates are that $ 30 billion worth of digitized music and film content will be stolen this year alone . This number is expected to hit $ 50 billion by the year 2020 . If the world ’ s artists have no control over the work they create , how can they survive ?

Hackers and pirates work to infiltrate electronic networks and steal content without being detected . They look for points of vulnerability . For this reason , Steve and his team have built protection into the entire music delivery system , including the computers , speakers and headphones we use to enjoy music and movies .

When Team Scaeva previewed their new technology at a recent conference of the National Association of Music Merchants in San Francisco , prospective customers took notice , giving high marks to performance and user-friendly design .

Knowing that this work can accelerate the application of science to have a positive and far-reaching impact on industry and society keeps Steve motivated .

“ This is an ongoing problem . There ’ s no quick fix . We have to keep raising the bar to protect what artists create in an increasingly digital world .”

Learn more at scaevatech . com .

GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN JUNE / JULY 2018 gmhtoday . com

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