product visionary for the "Breeze Live" web conferencing elements of the product. Despite the possibly revolutionary nature of the communication capabilities of the Flash Media Server, it did not meet initially with great business success. Macromedia saw Breeze as a means of getting Flash Media Server "over the hump." By building a solution on top of Breeze, the Breeze team had many goals: it sought to demonstrate what kind of applications could be built on the Flash Media Server platform, explore a new business model for a company traditionally focused on shrink-wrap tools software, and understand the attendant difficulties in building applications on the Flash Media Server platform. Incorporating technology acquired from Presedia, Breeze translated Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into Flash SWF files which could be viewed on the Web, with an accompanying audio track recorded by the presenter. Breeze could be used for a variety of uses, including corporate presentations, quarterly earnings calls, and distance learning. Breeze also featured "Breeze Live," a conferencing system built as a Flash application which utilized the Flash Media Server to enable two-way video/audio chat, shared whiteboarding, screen sharing and shared presentation viewing. Following the Adobe Systems acquisition of Macromedia, Breeze became Adobe Connect. Success of Flash By 2001, there were 50 people working on Flash, 500,000 developers were using it and over 325 million people had the Flash Player that worked with their web browsers. In 2007, a survey found that the Flash Player was installed on 96% of Internet-enabled desktops worldwide and was used by over 2 million professionals. Work after Macromedia On April 18, 2005, Adobe Systems, Inc. announced the acquisition of Macromedia. Gay ultimately decided to pursue other opportunities in lieu of joining the combined company. When Gay left Macromedia in December 2005, he held the title of Chief Technology Officer. Software as Art In August 2006, Gay founded a new software venture, Software as Art, in partnership with three other former veterans of the Flash and Breeze teams, Tatsumi, Grossman, and Santangeli. The company developed energy management solutions for the home. Silver Spring Networks In October 2009, Software as Art (by then renamed Greenbox) was acquired by Silver Spring Networks. Leaving IT In May 2010, he was running a small business selling grass-fed beef direct to consumers. Explory In May 2013, he tried to return into software business, launching successful Kickstarter campaign for Explory, mobile video app. References External links