10 personal questions and 10 personal answers from Derek Perez, Director of Public Relations at Nvidia. Besides company co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang, Derek Perez is probably Nvidia’s most visible person in the media. Derek is has been in charge of Nvidia’s public relations efforts pretty much since the company has appeared on the radar of most of us. In this capacity, he has experienced what most public relations people dream of: Join a company when it is small, shape the PR strategy throughout a phase of rapid growth and continue to direct these efforts for the multi-billion dollar company the graphics chip manufacturer has become. Read on to find out how he answered our questions.   

I couldn’t survive without my … I will answer this one two ways, one with tech, the other without. Most will say it’s my blackberry, but I really think it’s my iPod. I use it for video, music and tracking my miles when I’m running.  I’m a bit of a closet iPod junkie, really. But at the end of the day, they are all just “things”. The most important are my friends and family. They mean so much to me. They are always there to keep things in proper perspective. Offer me support.  Give me a laugh. And tell me when I’m being a complete idiot.

The best advice I ever got … In the infamous words of the Bobby Brady to Peter Brady “Mom always said…don’t play ball in the house!” Is there any better advice? No just kidding! Ok really, the best advice I ever got was to laugh every day, never go to bed pissed off, and don’t be afraid to try something new!

A person/people I admire … Are my grandparents: They both lived to be close to 100 years old.  They lived through good times and bad times, depression and happiness; they saw so much of the world change from no TV to HD.  They raised a huge family (7 kids) during this time. They instilled good values in the entire family. And they were in love all the way to end. Others include (in no particular order):  Jackie Robinson; Wayne Gretzky;  Jen-Hsun Huang;  Cameron and Connor Perez; George Stephanopoulos; Dalai Lama himself;  Obama; my starving artist of a brother Dan for continuing to pursue his dream;  Bill Gates; Dave Chappell;  my mom & dad – heck they raised me;  Drew Bruno; Eddie Vedder; and Miles Davis.

If I could go anywhere, or do anything, I would … (I’ll pick the do anything…) I would find a cure for cancer: I’ve lost a number of loved ones to this disease. Find a way to stop global warming: This will not affect me, but it will affect my kids. Find a way to change social and political behaviors: Is it me or has this gotten worse? Hatred and war will kill off our society before my kids can enjoy it.
    
A technology I have no use for … This is easy: It’s the Internet refrigerator!  What the hell is that all about: “hmmmm … I need a beer, wait: Let me check my MySpace while I’m here” - makes no sense to me. But wait: “hmmmmm … I need a beer, wait: Let me check my raid with my clan on World of Warcraft! Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeroy Jeeeeeeeeeeenkins!”  Ok, maybe …

The best idea I had … This one took some thought. Back in college, I was a sports medicine major, my dream was to be an athletic trainer. It was the way I could stay involved in sports when it became apparent I was too short, too slow and too small to play anything at a major university. I had completed my first internship and I decided that I couldn’t see myself doing this 10 years down the road. So I switched majors to public relations and from there the rest is history. Oh, and of course going to work at Nvidia … glad they took me!

Luxury is … Lying in a hammock on a remote island watching my family with a cold beverage - without email or phone calls!

I wish I had invented … The internet…but that’s all Al Gore! Ok seriously, I wish I had invented wine.  Wine has stood the test of time. While it has changed over the centuries, it is still all about the “simple” ability to ferment grapes.

My tombstone should read … It is what it is!

A person/trend/technology to watch … Is it me or is everything just a computer? And they are getting smaller, more visual and easier to use.  The handheld market is just changing the way people think about computers.  iPhone, mobile phones, portable media players, GPS, mobile PCs – their core is a computer, processors, graphics, memory, IO. And at the heart of that transformation are the applications that we’re all using - they’re all visual and graphical. Google Maps is a great example. And the best part about it is to drive these applications – the foundation for all these devices is the GPU.