American School in London grad who came to Duke for electrical engineering in 1985 and tried out for Coach K's team — got eight minutes across six games as a 6'6" sophomore in the 1986-87 season, scored three points, grabbed seven rebounds. Finished his BSE at Pratt and built a 35-year tech career: IBM, then GXS, then a Senior Director Retail Business role at Apple (2008-2015), then in 2022 co-founded EXO Checkout, the RFID-powered self-checkout solution now live at AT&T Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Great American Ball Park, and Lord's Cricket Ground.
Forward6'6"1985–89
American School in London (St. John's Wood, London, UK), Class of 1985 (3 years at ASL, 1982-1985) • 6'6" Forward (per Sports-Reference) on Duke's 1986-87 roster • Stub stats limited to 1986-87 season only as a sophomore: 6 G, 1.3 MPG, 8 total minutes, 1-of-2 FG (50.0%), 1-of-4 FT (25.0%), 3 total points, 7 rebounds (a rebound-per-minute rate that suggested the 6'6" forward was, in his limited mop-up minutes, doing what his body type indicated he should do) • Member of the Tommy Amaker senior-year Duke team that went 24-9, won the ACC regular season at 9-5, reached the Sweet Sixteen, lost 88-82 to eventual national champion Indiana under Bob Knight in New Orleans • Not on basketball roster after 1986-87 sophomore season • Continued at Duke as a Pratt School engineering student through his 1989 graduation • Earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, Class of 1989 • 35-year technology career: Systems Engineer and various roles at IBM in Research Triangle Park (1990-2001) • Director of Business Development at HAHT Commerce (2001-2004) handling technology alliances • Vice President of PIM Solution Sales at GXS (2004-2007) • Director of Business Development at DataFlux (2007-2008) • Senior Director Retail Business at Apple (2008-2015), the role he held through the iPhone-iPad-Apple Store explosion era • President at Redwood Perspective (2014-2015, overlapping with Apple transition) • Vice President at Stark RFID (2014-2015) • Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development at EXO Checkout (also EXO Solutions), launched 2022, headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina • EXO Checkout is deployed at AT&T Stadium (13 retail locations, 57 stations, in partnership with Legends), Yankee Stadium (live for the 2025 MLB Playoffs), Great American Ball Park (Cincinnati Reds, via Delaware North), and the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's in London (via Jonas Sports partnership) • EXO's UK and EU expansion is happening via MiTEQ partnership • Featured at NRF '25 retail technology conference with Zebra Technologies on a joint kiosk solution • Featured on the BlueStar Nation TEConnect Podcast Episode 218 (December 2024) on RFID in Retail & Checkout with Zebra's Eric Malmed • Featured in a 2025 CIOReview profile of EXO Solutions • Lives in Greenville, South Carolina
Now: Co-founder and Vice President of Business Development at EXO Checkout (founded 2022, headquartered in Greenville SC), the RFID-powered self-checkout solution deployed at AT&T Stadium (13 retail locations, 57 stations), Yankee Stadium, Great American Ball Park, and the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's via Jonas Sports partnership; expanding to UK and EU via MiTEQ partnership. Featured at NRF '25 with Zebra Technologies. 35-year technology career: IBM (1990-2001), HAHT Commerce, GXS, DataFlux, then Senior Director Retail Business at Apple (2008-2015), VP at Stark RFID (2014-2015), then EXO. Duke BSE in Electrical Engineering, 1985-1989 (Pratt School). American School in London, Class of 1985.
Rey Essex grew up an American student at the American School in London, the K-12 international school in St. John's Wood that has educated generations of American expatriate children whose families were stationed in the United Kingdom for diplomatic, military, or corporate reasons. He attended ASL from 1982 to 1985, graduating with the Class of 1985 - a three-year ASL student rather than a four-year, which suggests a family that arrived in London during his early high-school years. The American School in London is the kind of institution whose graduates spread back to American colleges and universities at the standard 18-year-old age and whose curriculum, while American in framing, exposes its students to a more international worldview than the typical American suburban high school does. Rey Essex was a 6'6" forward by the time of his ASL graduation, and he was bound for Duke.
He arrived in Durham in the fall of 1985 as a freshman in the Class of 1989, enrolled in the Pratt School of Engineering on track for a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. The Duke he walked into in October 1985 was a basketball program in transition: the Johnny Dawkins/Mark Alarie/Jay Bilas/David Henderson senior class was about to play its 1985-86 season, a team that would reach the 1986 national title game and lose 72-69 to Denny Crum's Louisville Cardinals at Reunion Arena in Dallas. The senior class would graduate en masse. Tommy Amaker would take over as the senior leader of the 1986-87 team that Rey Essex would join. The Duke roster Rey Essex tried out for was a roster where the available minutes for any Duke big man behind Danny Ferry, Billy King, John Smith, and the rest of the established frontcourt were essentially nonexistent. Rey Essex went out anyway.
Rey Essex graduated from the American School in London in 1985, the K-12 international school in St. John's Wood that educates the children of American expatriate families stationed in the United Kingdom for diplomatic, military, or corporate reasons. ASL's Annual Fund supports financial aid, faculty development, technology, and the international educational programming that shapes graduates like Rey Essex into the global thinkers they become. For a Duke Brotherhood member whose path from London to Duke to Apple to a Greenville, SC RFID startup is now reaching back to London via the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's, supporting the school where the journey began is a fitting Brotherhood gesture.