Employee Spotlight: Tanner Leland

Tanner is our Engineering Manager, the brains of the operation, as I like to call it. He can frequently be found making innovative new products, writing programming functions, and drafting the next big thing here at Inspired LED. Tanner has been a key player in making the company what it is today! Let’s find out more of what Tanner loves about Inspired LED!

tanner employee blog

A huge Congratulations to Tanner! You have been with Inspired LED for three years this month!

Thanks! I quietly crossed the three year marker on Tuesday – time sure flies.

What is your favorite part about your role here at Inspired LED?

Learning! After graduating as a mechanical engineer and joining Inspired LED, I’ve really had to hone my knowledge of electronics in order to be useful. I’ve had to teach myself about micro controllers, programming, transformers, LEDs of course, and a whole slew of topics that I never expected to build a level of expertise in. Now that I’m more than three years removed from college, I realize that one of the most important skills I gained was the ability to learn independently. Five years of college, and a heap of student loans, made it very clear that I can’t pay people to teach me forever and ultimately, I’d like to know everything.

This has been a big year for you! How does it feel to have your very first patent?

Had my first patent awarded in May, and it feels pretty good. It’s a nice concrete accomplishment that I can point to, which makes for better conversation than my usual engineering exploits. I expect it will feel even better once it garners a hoard of licensees. I have a couple more patents pending, so I’m excited to get a few more under my belt.

Since you spend so much time working incredibly hard here at the office, what is your favorite activity outside of work?

Working incredibly hard at home. My hobby is very similar to my work, I like to make stuff – make stuff either better or cheaper, preferably both. My main focus right now is an electronic beer brewing system with a focus on data collection and repeatability… and cheapness.

I also like to take advantage of the awesome hiking here in Arizona when the high temperature is below 80, which should be coming up here pretty soon.


We would like to thank Tanner for his hard work and dedication to making Inspired LED so successful. For more information on all of our team members check out our about us page. With any other questions feel free to give us a call (480) 941-4286 or email us at orders@inspiredled.com .