Dr. William Cain is the vice president of technology at WD, a subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation. In this position, he is responsible for the development and integration of new technology into WD products, setting strategic technology direction and coordination of the 2-5 year technology roadmap. Dr. Cain is also responsible for managing the Recording Sub System Engineering organization, chartered with delivering areal density performance for all HDD products. He has held several other positions at WD, including drive program management, failure analysis and the creation of the external storage product line.

Prior to joining WD, Dr. Cain held leadership positions in data storage companies including: senior director of product development at Akashic Memories Corporation and director of engineering for MR and Planar head technologies at Read-Rite/Censtor Corporation. Prior to Read-Rite, he was involved in the initial development of spin-valve GMR technologies at the Storage Systems Division of IBM.

Dr. Cain holds Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has numerous articles published in scientific and engineering publications, and sixteen patents related to data storage technologies.