John Wheeler, our CEO, first worked for Vernier as a consultant. For his first project he designed a photogate timing device, for which we paid him with one Macintosh computer. In 1993, he became a full-time employee, when we had fewer than 10 employees. John handled our parts purchasing, but he also continued to design products. Over the years, John has designed the Serial Box Interface, the LabPro interface, LabQuest, LabQuest 2, and most of our sensors. In 2015, he took on the overall leadership role at Vernier.
“It has been a fantastic experience growing up with this remarkable company,” John explains. “The world was certainly different when I started with Vernier—there was no such thing as social media or reality television. The internet was largely navigated using dial-up modems, cryptic command-line instructions, and specific utility apps. It was a super small company back then, and I was the purchasing, receiving, and engineering department in those days.”
“While we have grown significantly since then, the amazing thing is that we have been able to grow and keep our company culture. David and Christine Vernier started something really special and have nurtured it for 37 years to get to where we are now. We have kept our company values, and we continue to serve educators and impact student learning. I couldn’t be more proud to be part of the work we do here and to work alongside such wonderful people. I am lucky to have been a part of this amazing journey for so long, and I look forward to the coming great things that we will accomplish.”