Pond earned his BSEE from the University of Arkansas in 1966. He began his career in the semiconductor industry at Texas Instruments in 1968, where he rose to the rank of corporate vice president. Rex Naden was one of his colleagues at TI.
In 1981, he moved to Timex as executive vice-president.
After his stint at Timex, Pond joined Fairchild Semiconductor and named executive vice president.ย When National Semiconductor acquired Fairchild in 1987, he became vice president.ย In 1994, he was appointed chief operating officer of National.