Our Story

Barry Dean is an award-winning songwriter turned wheelchair technology founder. As CEO of LUCI, Barry sets the strategic vision and leads the company towards its goal of providing security, stability and connectivity for power wheelchairs. He founded the company with his brother, Jered, in 2017 with hopes of building a smarter solution for his daughter Katherine and all power wheelchair riders. He is a founding writer at Creative Nation Music, Recording Academy (GRAMMY) Nashville Chapter Governor, and has previously served two terms as a board member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International. Prior to becoming a songwriter, he led market strategy and product development for a leading education technology company. Barry lives in Nashville, Tenn.

Jered Dean is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at LUCI, where he brings his decade-long experience in new product development to life. Jered founded the company in 2017 with his brother, Barry, in hopes of creating a technology that could improve life in a power wheelchair for his niece, Katherine. As CTO, he heads all product development and innovation, overseeing a team of more than 15 engineers in Denver, Colo. During his time at Syncroness, where he worked in product development, Jered was responsible for the planning and execution of a number of projects from complex weapon systems to medical devices. His experience and expertise include control systems design and engineering, IP creation, project management for new product development, design of molded components, and dynamic mechanism design and simulation. He is the former Director of the award-winning Capstone Design@Mines program at the Colorado School of Mines, where he taught students engineering through project-based learning. Jered lives in Denver, Colo.

Peter Knapp is the Chief Operating Office (COO) at LUCI. He brings over 20 years of leadership, strategy, financial and operational experience across media and healthcare industries, including over 10 years in assistive technologies. As COO, Peter leads business development, operations, customer experience, finance and partnerships as LUCI launches its first products. LUCI is a modular electronics hardware platform that uses cloud and sensor technology to provide security, stability and connectivity for power wheelchair riders. With a solid track record of supporting rapid growth, Peter has led large-scale teams at companies including HearingPlanet Inc., the hearing industry’s largest digital marketing lead generation business, and Phonak where he served as CFO during a period when the organization doubled in size to become the market leader. After 5 years as an auditor with KPMG, he served on teams that oversaw strategy and corporate development at the Chicago-based Tribune Company. Peter lives in Nashville, Tenn.