Charles started his career in the semiconductor industry, working for Applied Materials in Santa Clara. He and a co-worker at Applied Materials started a company in 1989, and he spent the rest of his career as a serial entrepreneur. He started seven companies, four of which he sold successfully. Those four were Baylis Automation (semiconductor factory automation hardware and software), Lights Out Software (semiconductor factory automation software), DomainLogix (semiconductor factory automation integrator) and Ascribe (software and services for the market research industry). He retired from Ascribe in May of 2025, after its acquisition by Voxco.

Charles received his BA in Engineering Sciences at Dartmouth College, his MS in Materials Science at
Stanford University and another MS in Electrical Engineering at UC Berkeley.

He is a former member of the Rotary Club of Santa Cruz where he chaired the Bike Ride Committee that raised over 2 million dollars in funds. He and his wife now live in San Diego and enjoy spending time with their three, now grown, children.

Charles thanks his sponsors Mark Allan, Glenn Rossman and David Finn.