Mr. Potel is co-founder of Wildcrest Associates, a Silicon Valley software technology consultancy and internet-based products company established in 1997.

Previously, he was Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer for Taligent, Inc., initially a joint venture of Apple, IBM, and HP and later a wholly-owned subsidiary of IBM, where he led Taligent's technology strategy, architecture, and product planning activities. 

Prior to Taligent, he was Director of Software Engineering at Apple Computer where he initiated both Macintosh System 7.0 and the original "Pink" project that led to the formation of Taligent in 1992, and was responsible for other well-known Apple technologies such as QuickTime, TrueType, Unicode, and AppleScript. He also led Apple's development tools engineering groups that produced HyperCard, MacApp, and MPW.

Mr. Potel received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Chicago in 1977, where he was a member of the faculty until joining Apple in 1985. 

He is co-author of the book "Inside Taligent Technology," is Associate Editor-in-Chief and Applications Department Editor of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, has served on various advisory boards in the high tech industry, holds patents for the key technologies underlying Color QuickDraw for the Macintosh, and has published over 80 papers in software development, graphics, image processing, and scientific applications.