Gil Blankenship is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of the MDC Studio. In 2022 Dr. Blankenship retired as a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he taught courses in signal processing, control systems, and robotics. His past students work and teach at institutions around the world.

Dr. Blankenship has founded several high technology companies, including Techno-Sciences, Inc. (Maryland High Tech Company of the Year 2010, Deloitte Fast 500 2009-2011), the world leader in satellite aided search and rescue with installations in 30 countries. Among other projects, TSi built one of the world's longest maritime surveillance systems in Indonesia and Malaysia. The company won over $130M in SBIR Phase I, II, and III awards. The McMurdo-Orolia Group acquired TSi in 2014. The Tech Council of Maryland named Dr. Blankenship an International Business Leader of the Year in 2008 for his work at TSi. He is also co-founder and (past) Director of TRX Systems, Inc. (Global Security Challenge Winner 2009, Tibbetts Award 2012, Edison Award 2015, xTechSearch Grand Prize 2020, Motorola Ventures investment 2013), the premier company in personnel tracking and mapping. TRX has over 40 issued US patents and multiple international patents issued or pending. TRX Systems was acquired by the ACR Group in 2022.

He is also co-founder and Director of the MDC portfolio companies Sonosa Medical, Inc., Surgical Vision Systems, Inc., Connected Care Systems, LLC., and Reliance Robotics, Inc.

He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT in Cambridge MA. Dr. Blankenship is a Life Fellow of the IEEE.