David Beardsley has over 15 years of experience in CAD, surfacing engineering, and product development. He played a key role in defining CAD processes at Microsoft and directly shaped the surfacing capabilities of Creo software through his involvement in PTC's technical committee. Beardsley has expertise in multiple CAD methodologies and understands processes across concepting, prototyping, and manufacturing. The author recommends Beardsley without reservation and looks forward to continued collaboration.

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rapscallion, inc. PO Box 21286 Seattle WA 98111 www.rapscallion-inc.comrapscallion, inc. PO Box 21286 Seattle WA 98111 www.rapscallion-inc.com
To Whom It May Concern:
09 September 2016
David Beardsley
I’ve known David Beardsley for about 15 years. We’ve worked together on many projects and sought
each other out as knowledge and connection resources. Beardsley was instrumental in defining how
CAD, Surfacing Engineers and the surrounding CAD-related resources (scanning, model making,
prototyping, ID deliverables, etc.) are currently used at Microsoft, a company renowned for adhering to
process. He has been a vocal member of the PTC technical committee for Surfacing, directly shaping the
capabilities of Creo’s complex surfacing functionalities. Beardsley has also shown a mastery of radically
different CAD methodologies and widespread functionality from surface creation to NC machining. I’ve
always looked forward to his humorous, engaged, lightly pessimistic and “get ‘er done” style and hope for
many more years of interaction with him or any team he manages. I highly recommend David Beardsley.
I met Dave Beardsley at Microsoft in 1999. I vividly remember an ebullient fellow showing up to my first
nerve-wracking presentation to Microsoft in a bright orange t-shirt amidst everybody else’s (including
mine) blander “corporate” outfits. He kindly didn’t criticize my tepid surfacing skills, even though I later
found out he was about to surface one of the most iconic Microsoft mice to date (the mouse I continue to
prefer to this day). Luckily, we’ve since shared and expanded each other’s skills and knowledge of best
practices, limitations, and capabilities of surfacing, CAD, and product development.
We finally worked together in 2004, tackling a supremely complex keyboard on an intense timeline.
Microsoft’s second ergonomic keyboard was the first time in Microsoft’s history that multiple Surfacing
Engineers needed to work simultaneously on one project. Beardsley guided me through the applicable
established Microsoft processes, and he and I developed new processes to build individual parts of this
keyboard that needed to look like one object. From that project, Beardsley continued to be a necessary
and critical piece of CAD processes at Microsoft for a full decade, creating and redefining processes as
product development morphed through growth of industrial design’s importance, the introduction and
expansion of overseas resources into product development, and the massive growth of hardware projects
at Microsoft.
Beardsley joined the PTC Surfacing technical committee in the mid-2000’s, and his knowledge of class-A
surface development was absolutely instrumental in improving the capabilities of Creo’s surfacing
functionality. As an example, the idea of the Direct Surface Edit functionality was on PTC’s wish list but
the breadth of Beardsley’s experience was the key that led to the functionality being realized. His close
collaboration with ID throughout the product development process, his time spent analyzing the surfaces
of CAD and prototype models, his unrelenting desire to achieve the best surface quality possible as easily
as possible, his ability to demonstrate and explain the capabilities of the various surfacing CAD software
in use at Microsoft, and his often re-iterated and now infamous simple statement (“show me the math”)
were all necessary for PTC development to be able to understand and shape the brand-new functionality.
I’ve seen Beardsley deliver complex shapes in multiple CAD packages that use different surface creation
methodologies. His ability to operate in those different methodologies shows an in-depth understanding
of surfacing and the flexibility to learn new tools and way of creating shapes. Often, those models were
just a part of what he delivered, as they were usually part of a process that included him scanning,
importing, surfacing, and finally actually manufacturing the object using NC or RP software. He has spent
countless hours on CAD, scanning equipment, NC machines (including a homebuilt large-bed milling
machine), RP machines, etc., and his experience in Microsoft’s scanning, metrology, prototyping and
manufacturing facilities both overseas and on corporate campuses means he understands and can
participate very effectively anywhere in a product development process, and within corporate to small
group to individual environments.

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rapscallion, inc. PO Box 21286 Seattle WA 98111 www.rapscallion-inc.comrapscallion, inc. PO Box 21286 Seattle WA 98111 www.rapscallion-inc.com
Working with Beardsley has always been a pleasure. His humour can make a stressful pace much more
bearable. He stays engaged with the task at hand, looking to be efficient with effort and mindful of how
that effort fits into his understanding of product development and how people involve themselves in that
process. Amongst his humour hides a nicely pessimistic streak that actually keeps the reality of life
present in these processes that so often strive for perfection at an unrelenting pace. And wrapping it all
together is his enthusiasm to “get ‘er done” in whatever way it needs it get done without standing on
formality or needing to adhere to unnecessary requirements. Those characteristics and more make him a
fabulous manager, as essentially all of the comments I’ve heard about him from his reportees are positive
and supportive. He does a great job exposing juniors to appropriately complex projects and providing
support for them. He also does a fabulous job interacting with reportees that need little management and
excel at solving critical, high-pressure and pace problems.
I look forward to many more years of interacting and working with Beardsley, and I recommend him
unabashedly to any team trying to build something.
Respectfully,
Peter Newbury
Owner & Principal
Rapscallion, Inc.