I met with Neel Naicker of San Ramon, the chief strategy officer for NDB. The press release had cited Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as one of the places that had proven the concept. Naicker said that was an error and should not have been in the press release. I had reached out to the public information office at the lab and they could find no record of any personnel working with NDB or a non-disclosure agreement.
Naicker showed me a signed and redacted non-disclosure agreement with the lab dated in May 2017. He declined to identify lab personnel who had worked with the company and said they have moved on to other potential partners. Following up with a lab spokesman, he was unable to confirm that the lab had a non-disclosure agreement with either NDB or its parent company.
Naicker said the concept had been proven by another organization that he declined to name. He indicated it could be made public in the next two to three months. The company’s push now is to develop a prototype.
In our conversation, he outlined even more potential applications. The core team has been working on the technology for eight years and now is hustling to build prototypes.
Friends of the late Jacque Holder gathered Friday at GraceWay Church to celebrate her life. It was a powerful event with her three girls and the grandchildren speaking with one theme—the Good News of Jesus Christ. It demonstrated a powerful multi-generation legacy.
My bride has known the Holder family since the oldest daughter, Karen Burton, was in middle school. We volunteered with Carl and Jacque to lead the youth program at our church for a few years early in our marriage.
It was particularly poignant after the moving service when Karen said to me—you’ve got to come see us. She and her husband Brook have lived in the Denver area since they married. The other daughters and their families are in Arizona and Portland, Or. We’d seen Karen a couple of times yearly when she’d come to visit her parents as their health declined. With both parents passing, there’s no regular reason to come to Pleasanton.
It was the same for us in the Denver area. My wife’s aunt lived in Arvada for most of her adult life before moving to Pleasanton to spend her last two years living with us. That was the one relative that we were close too in the Denver area, so I understood Karen’s comment as a change of life’s seasons.
Incidentally, I was visiting with David Elkins, Kelly’s husband, about the riots and looting in Portland. He works downtown and has been urging his friends to come downtown see how awful the situation has become. The once-vibrant downtown is largely boarded up he said. Sad, sad commentary on a liberal mayor who is letting organized mobs destroy what had been a beautiful city.