Anthony Michael Fadell was born in Michigan, to a Lebanese-American father and a Polish-American mother. His father was a sales executive with the Levi Strauss company and the family moved frequently when Tony Fadell was growing up. Tony counts 12 schools he attended in a 15-year period. Grosse Pointe, Michigan was the community the Fadell family most often returned to, and Tony Fadell graduated from Grosse Pointe South High School. His maternal grandfather, a teacher and school superintendent, was an inveterate tinkerer and taught Tony to use tools, build things and repair machinery. Tony discovered computers at age 12 and caddied at a local golf club to raise money to buy his first Apple II. In high school, he perused MacWorld and the other computer magazines and dreamed of working with the team responsible for creating Apple’s Macintosh computer. He studied computer engineering at the University of Michigan and as an undergraduate built a small business, Constructive Instruments, producing multimedia composition software for children.

Further FunThinking

Tony Fadell: The first secret of great design is noticing