Presently Mr. Fitzgerald is the owner, founder and executive of two Boutique Hotels and Function Facilities. The Admiral Fitzroy Inn is located in downtown Newport, RI and is one of the most popular small hotels in the region. The Proctor Mansion Inn is located in Foxboro MA, and is steeped in history.
Mr. Fitzgerald is an alum and ambassador for Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses. After attending its Masters training program, he is now an advocate and spokesman for the 10,000 Small Businesses Voices initiative. He is also a mentor through Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) in Rhode Island. In affiliation with MIT, the group consults pro-bono with start-ups and small businesses.
Previously, Mr. Fitzgerald served as President, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of a high‑tech start‑up company that specialized in the design and product development of advanced high‑speed Digital Signal Processors (DSP). The superior DSP technology focused on next generation Electronic Imaging, mobile video and audio applications. The company business model was that of an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) supplier to Consumer Electronics and it was selected by Venture Wire as one of the top 25 hottest start-ups in 2003, as well as 2002 EDN magazine’s choice as finalist for innovation of the year.
Before that, he joined Xionics Document Technologies as Vice President of Engineering. At this publicly traded company, he was instrumental in the company’s turnaround from a loss to a profitable organization. It was listed as one of the top positive earnings surprises by NASDAQ in 1999.
For most of his career, he held a diverse range of positions with IBM. He was the team leader on the design and introduction of two generations of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and co-designed the world’s first quarter megabit DRAM for which he received an IBM Outstanding Innovation Award. His technical activities then led him to be chosen as the IEEE Outstanding Young Engineer of the year in 1983.
Also at IBM, Mr. Fitzgerald honed his management and technical skills, eventually managing the industry leading IBM ASIC organization of over 250 engineers, technicians and managers in multiple locations. His groups did VLSI design, high speed memories, and a variety of ASICS and microprocessors. He consulted on IBM Personal Systems, RS6000 Workstations, interconnection strategies and semiconductor technology. He then became Senior Marketing Executive for IBM Microelectronics where he was responsible for the creation and initial management of the division’s sales and marketing. Finally he moved to Director of Microelectronics worldwide field applications and the design centers.
Mr. Fitzgerald continues to be very active in the hotel and electronics industries. He was General Chairman of Major IEEE Conference, member of the MIT mentoring service, consultant and presenter for both the high tech and travel industries, and finally spokesperson and advocate for Small Business.
Mr. Fitzgerald completed a simultaneous Bachelors and Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and has recently graduated from the Babson University/Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Masters level certificate program.