I’ve been in this industry longer than I care to think about. If you remember Fortran, TTL, and 8 bit logic, then you’re in my age demographic. I started my career actually building cool things like telephone switches and railway signalling systems. Around the late 90s I was seduced by the dark side of greater salary and moved into management. Ok I don’t care what Daniel Pink says, money is still a motivator. I was also seriously interested in the business of product development. I was quickly learning it did not matter how technically awesome your engineers were, without a shared clear vision and great leadership projects were doomed to struggle.
Education wise, I have a PhD in electrical and computer engineering.