Kevin Ashton is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 technology pioneer who cofounded the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, which created a global standard system for RFID and other sensors.

Ashton was as an assistant brand manager at Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....

 in 1997 when he became interested in using RFID to help manage P&G's supply chain. This work led him to MIT, where he helped start an RFID research consortium called the Auto-ID Center with professors Sanjay Sarma

Sanjay Sarma

Sanjay E. Sarma is a professor of mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the technology visionary credited with developing many standards and technologies that form the foundation of the commercial RFID industry....

 and Sunny Siu and researcher David Brock.