David Allais

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David Allais (born March 5, 1933, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American inventor known for his work in bar coding and automatic identification and data capture. He helped grow Intermec Inc. from a small startup into a leading maker of barcode and printing equipment, serving as vice president, president, and chief executive officer. Earlier in his career, he worked in management at IBM. In 1989, he founded PathGuide Technologies in Bothell, Washington, a company that develops warehouse management systems for distributors. He currently serves as the chairman of PathGuide.

Education: Allais earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona in 1954, a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona in 1958, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1962, and a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1965.

Awards and honors: He received the AIM Richard R. Dilling Award in 1988 for his contributions to barcode technology and the University of Arizona College of Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. He is credited with creating five barcode symbologies: Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5 (ITF), Code 11, Code 93, and Code 49, and he is listed as an inventor on seven U.S. patents.

Key contributions and work: Allais developed Interleaved 2 of 5 in 1972 while at Intermec. He and Ray Stevens also developed Code 39 in 1974, which encodes uppercase letters, digits, and some special characters. Code 11 followed in 1977, and Code 93 was introduced in 1982 to provide higher density and data capacity. Code 49, developed in 1987, helped pave the way for later technologies like PDF417.

Career timeline: After IBM (1958–1968) in engineering and management roles, Allais joined Intermec in 1968 as vice president of engineering. He held various executive roles there for two decades, including 14 years as CEO, before founding PathGuide Technologies in 1989 and leading it as president until 2006. PathGuide specializes in real-time warehouse management systems that use barcode scanning and wireless data.