Kenneth Willett

One aspect of my education at Whitman which I think helped a great deal in moving into the software industry is that Whitman's computer science courses were a component of the math curriculum. In most other schools in the '70's, computer science was associated with a business or engineering curriculum. The result for me was a much stronger coupling of programming with analysis and problem solving.

As I have worked in various software fields, that analytical outlook has served me well and has allowed me to tackle quite complex system design problems. In the software industry today, programming skills are relatively easy to come by (they are taught in high schools and community colleges); but the ability to solve complex problems is much more rare. That skill, together with the ability to write coherently (a surprisingly critical skill in software development), has made my Whitman education a very valuable asset.

Kenneth Willett, '74

Ignis Systems

Kenneth Willett, '74, owns and operates Ignis Systems Corporation, a software consulting firm in Portland, Oregon.

A mathematics and physics double major at Whitman, he earned a master's degree in computer science at Washington State University and is pursuing a Ph.D. in systems science from Portland State University.

He began his career at Tektronix in Beaverton, Oregon. In 1981 he joined Mentor Graphics as a founder, where he designed and developed engineering applications, managed product development teams, and served as corporate software architect.

After 13 years he left the company and established his own consulting business. Projects have included healthcare, industrial, financial, and Internet applications for organizations such as Decision Point Systems, Medica-Logic/Medscape, www.MyHealthBank.com, and the Archdiocese of Portland.