Before joining Zarlink, Warner owned and operated 290 Ventures, a consulting firm that advised clients, including Zarlink's optical products group, on business formation, strategy, product management and marketing.

Warner began his professional career in 1985 as an ASIC design engineer with Wyle Laboratories in Denver and Los Angeles, and has since held a series of progressively senior engineering, sales, marketing and executive positions. Of note, from 2001 to 2004 he was vice president of marketing with Picolight, a private company specializing in optical components and transceivers. In this position, Warner guided Picolight's product management and marketing, and played a lead role in strategy formation, relaunch of the company, fund raising, and capture of critical customers.

Before joining Picolight, Warner worked with Boulder-based Base 2 Systems, which was subsequently acquired by Brooktree. Brooktree was then acquired by Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, which was then spun out as Conexant Systems, a semiconductor company specializing in network access, broadband and digital home technologies.

In a range of sales, product management and executive positions, Warner was responsible for managing engineering staff and product and strategic marketing for the company's Network Access Division and discovering and pursuing new market opportunities and identifying and qualifying acquisitions. Warner was instrumental in the identification of multiple acquisitions for the Network Access Division and post-merger integration of the largest two moves, Maker and Hotrail. Warner left Conexant as the Network Access Division was being spun out as Mindspeed.

Warner received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University, where he now serves as a member of the engineering department's Industrial Advisory Board. He holds a number of patents related to networking and traffic management integrated circuits.