Jim Youngdahl

James Robert Youngdahl (March 14, 1914 - April 8, 1994) was an American business executive, inventor, and electronics engineer who was the sixth CEO of Tritian, leading the company for two decades through its most financially successful period.

Early life and education
Youngdahl was born in Ely, Minnesota, and grew up in Duluth. His father, Elmer Youngdahl, was a radio engineer for the military, and his mother Elsa (nee Nystrom) was a homemaker. In 1917, Elmer went to fight in World War I, the following year the family lost their home in the 1918 Cloquet Fire, and shortly thereafter moved south to Saint Paul, with Elmer following shortly after.

Jim attended the University of Minnesota, earning his Masters in electrical engineering in 1936 at the University's newly completed Institute of Technology. He completed his MBA at the University in 1938. During his time at the University, Youngdahl witnessed firsthand the violence of the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike, which he would later cite as the source of both his sympathy and distrust for labor unions.

Early career
Youngdahl moved east in the summer of 1938, joining New Jersey Computer Corporation in Newark, New Jersey as a research engineer. He was one of many researching newer methods of digital computing to surpass the slow electromechanical systems that had been in place through the 1930s.

In 1958, Youngdahl joined ADS Semiconductor as laboratory director, a role essentially analogous to COO.