National Engineers Week

Bev Crair

B.A. in Computer and Information Sciences ’83, B.A. Mathematics ’83

VP of Product Development & Quality in Lenovo's Data Center Group

“The UC system teaches students how to discover, how to ask important questions. UC graduates have an inquisitiveness about what's possible.”

Bev Crair is VP of Product Development & Quality in Lenovo’s Data Center Group. As the group’s technical lead, she’s responsible for business strategy and planning, as well as new technology development and implementation.

Crair emphasizes the potential for technology to create positive change in the world, and maintains a global perspective when thinking about new technologies. At the forefront of major technology trends, Crair and her team enjoy finding ways to help companies navigate what she calls a digital transformation, which may include incorporating new silicon technologies, computing technologies, or artificial intelligence into their business.

Crair has always been interested in engineering. From an early age, she and her father built kits together: oscilloscopes, for example, which they donated to a local school. She came from a military family, spent her formative years in Bangkok, and learned three languages before starting high school. When she returned home to the United States she found herself somewhat alienated from her peers. She adapted, but her childhood struggles sparked an interest in language translation and what would become a lifelong passion for natural language processing and computer science as a way to bring people together.

In college, she started out as a double major in nuclear physics and chemical engineering at UC. During her first year, she heard that another UC campus was doing new and exciting work in computer science and artificial intelligence, and she moved south to complete her undergraduate degree there.

Crair believes that engineering is about seeing what's possible, about creating something that didn’t exist before. It’s about imagining a different future and using facts, figures, and intuition to create something fundamentally new.

“Sometimes people think about engineering as a way to solve problems, which it certainly can be, but it's more than that,” she says.

Crair believes that the best engineers have three qualities in common: a natural curiosity and enthusiasm for their work; a positive learning curve, meaning they keep learning throughout their careers; and an ability to work well with diverse teams. 

Addressing this last point, Crair believes that diversity and especially inclusion are important in engineering. “Features and priorities of solutions and new products and services will be different for different people. So you need people with different backgrounds and perspectives. Diversity isn’t just a goal, it’s a necessity.”

Crair earned her B.A.s in computer science and mathematics in 1983 and began developing software and eventually managing at Unisys. Later, after earning a Masters of Business Administration from Pepperdine, she landed a series of increasingly senior roles at technology companies such as Sun Microsystems, Intel, and Lenovo. She is a strong supporter of UC's Girls in Engineering program and the Lionel Cantú Center, is on the board of trustees at the UC Foundation, and enjoys SCUBA diving.

Learn more about Bev:  https://youtu.be/c4WLiM18d4k