Tom Bruggere

Tom Bruggere was born in Berkeley, California.[1][2] He stated of his early life that he "grew up with a picture of Jack and Bobby Kennedy over [his] bed."[3]

He has a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a Masters of Science in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, and a Masters of Business Administration from Pepperdine University.[4] He served in the Army in the Vietnam War, from 1968-1970.[1][4] Prior to running for office, he served on several government boards, including the Oregon State Board of Higher Education.[4]

Bruggere was an engineer with Burroughs Corporation Medium Systems Plant in Pasadena, California in the early to mid-1970s, then with Tektronix, Inc. in the late 1970s.

He is Protestant.[1]

Bruggere founded Mentor Graphics, a Tektronix spinoff,[5] in 1981. A 1991 article in Oregon Business magazine stated: "One of [Tektronix'] main contributions to Oregon has been the many companies that spun off from former employees," citing the success of Bruggere and a number of other creative former Tektronix employees with Mentor Graphics as the prime example.[6] He was one of the people credited with founding the Oregon Center for Advanced Technology Education and served as chairman of the center in the early 2000s.[7][8] Mentor Graphics is credited with having established the industry of electronic design automation.[6] He resigned as president and CEO in October 1993, and was succeeded in both roles by Wally Rhines.[9] Upon leaving Mentor Graphics, he cited a desire "to do something else, something in public policy."[3]

Bruggere won the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat vacated by the retiring Mark Hatfield in 1996. Spending $800,000 of his own money in the primary race,[10] he was one of 134 candidates for the U.S. Congress to finance their own elections in excess of $50,000 in that cycle.[11]

Bruggere's Republican opponent, Gordon Smith, was also heavily self-financed, having spent $2.5 million of his own money earlier that same year in an unsuccessful effort to defeat Democrat Ron Wyden in the special election to replace Bob Packwood, who had resigned.[10]

In the general election race, most Oregon daily newspapers endorsed Smith over Bruggere.[12] Bruggere lost a close election to Smith, with neither side claiming victory for several days after the election, when absentee ballots were tallied.[13]

Bruggere was the founding Chairman of Stamps.com and Sensoria.[14] He resigned from the Stamps.com board in October 2000.[15][16]

He has also served on the boards of Will Vinton Studios, OpenMarket, and Sirigen and on the advisory boards of Mercy Corps[14] and of the Technology Management Program at UCSB.[2]

As of 2011, he was part of the management team of 13therapeutics, a biotech spin-off of the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).[17]