Episode 35 | On the Move

From Code to Connections: Linda Campbell on Why It’s Always Who, Not What

LINDA CAMPBELL
Linda Campbell Inc.

Linda Campbell has spent her career building the technical partnerships and ecosystems that hold the embedded and industrial IoT worlds together. She spent 28 years at QNX, staying through its acquisitions by Harman and then Blackberry, and has built partnerships for companies at every scale, from startups like QNX and Bluescape to industry leaders like Itron and Harman to global players like Blackberry. A brief detour into enterprise SaaS at a visual collaboration startup taught her that her expertise travels across industries and technologies.

Today she embraces being a multi-hyphenate: running her own consulting company, advising startups, and serving as President of Women in Automotive Technology. She is also a published author and cartoon philosopher, currently working on a book that combines the two. Linda describes herself as simultaneously small fish and elephant, having danced in the shoes of both, and as a professional cat herder. Others call her a rainmaker and super-connector. One friend calls her the queen of unsolicited advice.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • What “software-defined vehicle” actually means now versus what the hype promised, from someone who was building vehicle software long before the term existed

  • Where SDVs really sit today, and the work happening behind the scenes that isn’t making headlines

  • Why “who, not what” has shaped how Linda approaches every problem

  • What separates partnerships that deliver from the ones announced with fanfare that quietly fall apart

  • Lessons from a 28-year run at one company, through two acquisitions

  • Retiring twice and failing both times, and what she learned about what actually matters

Connect with Linda:

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