Simon Lancaster has an extensive work experience in the engineering field. Simon began their career in 2004 as a Manufacturing Engineering Technical Writer for Northern Digital Inc. (NDI). In 2005, they were an Electro-Mechanical Test Systems Design Engineer for BlackBerry, where they developed three systems that were patented. In 2006, they worked as a Stamping Engineer for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. In 2007, they were a Platforms Mechanical Engineer for Google, Inc. From 2008 to 2019, they worked at Apple, where they held two roles: Advanced Materials and Prototyping lead in Product Design Architecture and Advanced Manufacturing Engineer in Manufacturing Design. During their time at Apple, they filed 21 patents. In 2019, they became the Head of Consumer Products (Business Development and Applications Engineering) for ARRIS, where they developed a business development pipeline from zero to a $250M Series C valuation. In 2021, they took on three roles: General Partner at Omni Venture Labs, Head of Engineering & Strategy at Carbon Mobile, and Investor and Board Director at Miravel. Simon also joined the Customer Advisory Board Member at Fictiv.
Simon Lancaster obtained a BASc (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo between 2003 and 2008. In 2017 and 2018, they completed the Fundamentals of Manufacturing Processes course from edX. In 2018 and 2019, they obtained an Executive MBA with an Innovation & Strategic Leadership Focus from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. Simon also holds certifications from LinkedIn, including Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh on Blitzscaling, Design Thinking: Venture Design, and Purple Belt from the ATA American Taekwondo Association. Additionally, they hold a PADI Master Scuba Diver certification from PADI, which they obtained in 2013.
August, 2021 - present