Walt Barnes was born in 1955 in the rural community of El Dorado Kansas and lived there for the first seventeen years of his life.  A Cum Laude graduate of El Dorado High School, he excelled in academics, debate and dramatics and received a variety of local and national academic awards, and was a National Merit Scholar. Throughout high school Walt worked in construction and as a cabinetmaker in the family furniture business.

Working towards his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of Kansas, Walt began his career as a teaching assistant there. After graduating and working at the University of Houston for about a year, Walt moved to Naperville Illinois, attended Northwestern University and received a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering.  He joined Bell Telephone Laboratories as one of the original architects for their Computer Division, designing fault tolerant, real-time computer systems. At Bell Labs he designed high performance transaction processing software that set the record for the most simultaneous users in France's Minitel Network, the Internet’s precursor.  As one of the architects for AT&T’s 5-ESS project he directed the design of what ultimately became one of the largest engineering projects ever undertaken.

After leaving AT&T Walt directed the design and construction of robotic blood analysis systems for Abbott Labs and in 1994 he, his wife Anne, and two friends -founded Real-Net Advertising, pioneering the use of the Internet to advertise real estate. 

Walt joined Motorola to direct research and development for user interfaces for their next generation of cellular switching computers.  He become their software architect for Motorola’s Internet Content Services Division helping to design systems to integrate Internet applications with cellular telephones, including the use of voice command gateways.  Walt joined AT&T Labs in 2002 to develop services to protect large data centers from Internet attack.

Walt and his wife Anne moved to Kauai in 1997 and reside in Wailua. Walt is past President Garden Isle Racing Association and races his ‘70 Ford Ranchero or Anne’s Mustang convertible as often as the NHRA track at Mana is open. Walt joined the Board of Directors of Kauai Island Utility Cooperative in 2000 to help complete the purchase, and was elected to the Board of Directors in the first election after the co-op was created. Walt served on KIUC’s Finance and Audit Committee and chaired KIUC’s Strategic Planning Committee. Walt also was a founding Director of the KIUC Foundation. Walt is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Kauai Public Land Trust. Walt writes a monthly climate change series for The Garden Island newspaper. Walt teaches corporate governance and facilitates strategic planning for Kauai’s non-profits. 

Walt may be reached directly via email at walt@real-net.com.  For more information about Walt or Anne please visit their web site at http://www.walt-n-anne.com.