Joseph Rodney "Rod" Canion (born January 19, 1945) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 computer scientist and businessman. Canion is a co-founder and was a CEO of Compaq Computer Corporation

Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....

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A native of Houston, Canion graduated from the University of Houston

University of Houston

The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

 in 1966 and 1968 with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in electrical engineering with an emphasis on computer science. Before co-founding Compaq Canion worked at Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...

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During Canion's tenure as Compaq's CEO, the company set records for the largest first-year sales in the history of American business and reached the Fortune 500 and the $1 billion revenue mark faster than any other company in history. In 1991, Canion was dismissed by Compaq's chairman, Benjamin M. Rosen

Benjamin M. Rosen

Benjamin "Ben" M. Rosen is the former Chairman and former Acting Chief Executive Officer of Compaq.-Early life and career:...

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In 1992, Canion founded Insource Technology Group with Ronald L. Fischer and served as its chairman until September 2006. In 1999, he led the initial investment round for Questia Media, Inc., which provides an online research library. He became chairman of the board and later helped the company raise $150 million. He is a member of the Board of Directors of AMVESCAP

AMVESCAP

Invesco Ltd. is an independent investment management company that is incorporated in Bermuda, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and has branch offices in 20 countries. Its common stock is a constituent of the S&P 500 and trades on the New York stock exchange...

, BlueArc

BlueArc

BlueArc Corporation is a network storage device manufacturer headquartered in San Jose, California. BlueArc was founded in 1998 by Geoff Barrall, Jeff Pinkham and Jon Meyer. Initially based in the UK, BlueArc transitioned its HQ to the US in 2000 and became a US corporation at that time although...

, and Young Life Metro, and HealthLink, is Director Emeritus of the Houston Technology Center

Houston Technology Center

The Houston Technology Center is a Technology Accelerator and Incubator located in the Heart of midtown Houston. The HTC creates economic wealth in the region by supporting technology businesses in the sectors of Energy, Information Technology , Life Sciences, and NASA based space technologies...

, and is a member of the Board of Advisors for Sternhill Partners.