Michael J Carey PhD CEng FIET BSc(Eng) ACGI, August 1949 – February 2021
Published: Fri 19 Mar 2021
Michael Carey died at home on 9 February 2021, 16 years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Michael joined the Post Office as a Student Apprentice in 1967 and then studied Electrical Engineering at Imperial College.
He joined the Post Office Research Establishment in 1971 where he worked on what would become System X, the British public telephone digital switching system.
Michael moved on to take up a position at the University of Keele in the Physics department.
He completed his doctorate at this time.
It was in 1981 that he was approached to set up a small research group at Mitel Telecom in South Wales.
In 1986, along with Adrian Anderson and Simon Maddison he left to found Ensigma which quickly established itself as a leader in the research and development of digital speech and audio DSP applications.
Digital audio broadcasting and speech recognition became core development activities for the company under Michael’s management, leading also to digital wireless.
Much of its business derived from licensing designs for incorporation into semiconductors.
He was a strong believer in education and in the importance of the links between industry and universities.
Michael had numerous patents and international papers in the field of speech recognition and speaker verification that are still being referenced today.
In 2000, Michael negotiated a takeover by Imagination Technologies, which gave Ensigma the critical mass to compete successfully on the world stage.
After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease Michael retired but continued to work as an honorary professor at Birmingham University where he continued his research and supervised a number of PhD students, and continued to be well respected on the international speech recognition stage.
Michael was an immensely talented and high energy man of razor-sharp intellect, great determination, ambition and focus.
From a modest family background in Preston, he studied hard through grammar school to get into Imperial College, and his parents worked hard to support him.
Outside of work, wine and classical music were great passions, and he was an early adopter of top-end hi-fi equipment, including electrostatic speakers which brooked no compromise in their place in his house.
His wife Elizabeth worked with him in the business from the beginning.
She has lovingly and tirelessly cared for him through his illness.
He is survived by his three children and eight grandchildren.
We shall miss his intellect, lively discussion and friendship.