Stuart Barnes was born in Worksop, England. He attended Retford Grammar School, Nottinghamshire, and went on to read Engineering at Queen Mary College, London. On completing his PhD at the same institution, he joined Standard Telecommunication Laboratories (STL) in Harlow in 1978. He held a number of senior research posts at STL prior to becoming technical manager of STC Telecommunication Cable in Newport, Gwent. After that, he became deputy technical director of STC Submarine Systems (now a part of Nortel), based in Southampton, becoming technical director in 1993, where he was based at the Greenwich facility. Following the acquisition by Alcatel of the submarine business, he moved back into research, becoming deputy technical director of Alcatel Recherche based in Marcoussis, France. After three years in France, he returned to the UK and founded ilotron, a privately funded optical switching start-up based on the Essex University campus in Colchester. ilotron foundered in the post bubble meltdown, and he went on to become an entrepreneur in residence at Atlas Venture, a $5 billion-funded tier one venture capital fund. At Atlas, he cofounded Azea Networks in 2001 (where he is CTO) along with Scott White (previously of Atmosphere Networks), Steve Webb, and Dave Winterburn. Azea Networks has received about $50 million in venture funding to date and makes transmission equipment for upgrading submarine transmission links. He is a visiting professor of electrical engineering at Southampton University and supports the industrial advisory initiatives of the School of Electronics and Computer Science. He also works closely with the School of Electronic Engineering at Aston University. He lives in London and Salisbury with his long-suffering wife and three children. In his spare time, he plays golf badly and supports Southampton FC.