Jim Heppelmann

BIOGRAPHY

Why a Tech Power Player? For contributions to design software development and entrepreneurship.

For more than a decade, Jim Heppelmann has led the software company PTC as its CEO, expanding it from its roots in computer-aided design applications that help companies engineer everything from automobiles to wind turbines to spacesuits. He has bought smaller companies to extend the software’s reach and to create a new kind of product lifecycle management that uses digital design to assist manufacturing and guide long-term maintenance at industrial companies. In January, Heppelmann completed his largest acquisition yet, paying nearly $1.5 billion for ServiceMax, which uses products’ digital records to develop maintenance plans and dispatch service technicians. Prior to joining PTC, he cofounded Windchill Technology, which was acquired by PTC in 1998. Heppelmann is a director of Attleboro-based Sensata Technologies and co-chair of the board of trustees at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. He holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota.