“YESTERDAY, WE HAD STEVE JOBS, TODAY WE HAVE MARK ZUCKERBERG, TOMORROW, WE SHALL HAVE MARY SPIO, AND THAT’S HOW HISTORY WILL REMEMBER HER”
Born to parents of Ghanaian descent, she entered the Air Force after graduating from public high school in Syracuse, New York. She had with dreams of becoming a jet fighter pilot, but injury stopped her training, so she followed in her dad’s footsteps and graduated from Syracuse University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. After receiving the prestigious National GEM Consortium Fellowship she continued on to graduate school. #hiddenGEM.
“The GEM Fellowship changed my life. It provided me with [a] full-tuition scholarship to Georgia Tech and allowed me to graduate with a master’s in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering without student loans ̶ and to get my first job with the Aerospace Corporation.”
After a stint at Panamsat, she joined the Boeing Company, where she received the prestigious Boeing Outstanding Achievement Award for her contributions to the field of Engineering. While working in Boeing’s Digital Cinema Division, she helped pioneer the digital cinema technology used by Lucas Films in Star Wars, Episode 2. That tech is today’s industry standard.
Now, as the CEO of CEEK Virtual Reality [ceek.com], the company she founded, she is disrupting the emerging field of VR. In typical pioneering Mary fashion, she has formulated more than 10 patents on real-time VR streaming and other immersive technology, and she has already been awarded five of those patents as of this writing.
Mary Spio is Digital Cinema Pioneer with 10+ Technology patents. Spio has held technical leadership roles at BOEING and INTELSAT. A US AIR FORCE Veteran and Deep Space Engineer Spio’s companIies have worked with MICROSOFT XBOX 360, Tribune News and 200+ radio stations.
Mary’s company has also formed a partnership with another NBA 2K League organization, the #OrlandoMagic’s #MagicGaming. Both partnerships include similar brand integration with in-game signage, with Magic Gaming also making CEEK VR a jersey sponsor. Additionally, CEEK is working with both organizations to produce feature content involving the teams.
Mary’s goals for CEEK VR extend beyond a standard brand partnership with a few #esports organizations. Mary explained that her company is “aiming to one day offer a VR viewing experience of live NBA 2K League matches. A partnership with multiple teams in the league is a natural stepping stone to that goal.”
Mary founded CEEK VR four years ago to develop omni-channel VR technology, create and curate VR content and distribute VR experiences across digital and traditional channels (e.g., iOS, Android, Oculus, in-store, online, etc.) , a feat no other company has achieved.
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Credit: ebony.com
