Notable Alumni

You will find prominent RIT alumni making their mark in a variety of fields including government, science, technology, arts, media, business, engineering and more. Know an alumnus/alumna who could be listed here? Tell us about them now!

Art

Renowned artist who helped establish De’VIA, a type of painting depicting the life of a deaf individual in a hearing world.

Glass artist; member of Glass Art Society Board of Directors.

Founding partner and CCO of award winning interactive agency Threespot. Based in Washington, DC, Threespot works for organizations creating positive change in the world such as Amnesty International USA, BBC America, Kennedy Center/ARTSEDGE, several philanthropic foundations, and the Smithsonian Institution, to name a few.

Founder of D-PAN, the Deaf Performing Artists Network; nationally recognized deaf musician.

Renowned artist and recipient of the Edward MacDowell Medal.

Nationally celebrated ceramics and fibers artist.

Joon-yong Kim is a leading glass artist in South Korea’s emerging glass scene. He is a professor at Kook-min University and owner of the Joon glass studio in Seoul, South Korea. In 2013, Kim won silver in the annual International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa, a prominent platform for contemporary glass, in Kanazawa Japan.

Comic book artist known for his work for publishers such as Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and DC Comics, including work on Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man and Superman. Kubert was rated by Wizard magazine as one of the "Hot 10 Writers and Artists" in the industry in 2008.

Studio artist and associate professor of art at Southern Illinois University, where he has headed the glass program since 2005. Lee served as a member of the board of directors for the Glass Art Society from 2009 until 2015. He has won a number of honors, including the Emerging Artist Award from the Glass Art Society.

Illustrator best known as a key contributor to Mad Magazine for more than two decades. His illustrations appeared in more than 175 Mad issues, as well as on many paperback covers.

Currently the Glass faculty head and studio coordinator at San Jose State University in California. She presently serves as President of the board of directors for the international Glass Art Society and her work has been exhibited nationally.

Illustrator and nationally recognized caricaturist who is known for lampooning political and business figures. She has illustrated for Time, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, The Village Voice, The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Atlantic, Fortune, Rolling Stone, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

Founder and director of Ezra Glass Studio; professor of Glass Department, Osaka University of Arts, Osaka, Japan. He has instructed and lectured throughout the world, including at the Tokyo Glass Institute and the Pilchuck School of Glass, as well as serving as guest artist in Waterford Crystal in Ireland in 1998.

Design

Vice president of Design Innovation at Nike. Creator of some of Nike’s most innovative and award-winning designs including the Kobe Bryant series of footware.

Founder of Staach, furniture company that focuses on functional sustainable design. Its products can be found around the world, including in Shake Shack locations and at the Google offices in Mountain View, Calif

Director of Visual Strategy and Presentation, National Basketball Association. Oversees visual strategy for NBA events including The Finals, NBA Draft and NBA All-Star Games, and interiors for the NBA’s corporate offices and retail stores. Lead product development and design for Fleer Trading Cards and has designed for a wide range of brands including the Walt Disney Company, Hasbro, Lysol and French’s.

Founder and Chairman of Altitude, Inc., designer of Margaritaville Blender and more.

Industrial designer and gerontologist, Author Of Disguised: A True Story (1985).

Chief Experience Officer, Carrot Creative

Massimo and Lella Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design at RIT; member of the ADC Global Hall of Fame; member Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI); 2008 laureate for induction into the Hall of Fame of the New York Art Directors Club.

Founder and principal designer of Chicago-based MINIMAL, a studio creating brand-building products and experiences that connect emotionally with users producing brand icons and new ecosystems for companies like Xbox, Microsoft, Google, Dell, Nike, and Apple. Former global creative director at Nike, and former design leader in organizations such as IDEO, Thomson Consumer Electronics, Fortune Brands and Motorola.

Photography

Celebrity and political photographer; photos have included Hollywood stars like Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr., sports stars like Shaquille O’Neal, and President Barack Obama and the First Family during the historic 2008 campaign for the presidency. His work includes editorial and advertising photography for top companies like Crate & Barrel, Coca-Cola, and Target, and top publications like Sports Illustrated and Time.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, Boston Herald-American In 1979.

Nationally-revered photojournalist.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for Feature Photography with Associated Press in 1999 .

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Photographer; pioneer in "Painting with Light".

Noted civil rights photographer; former Guggenheim Fellow; first photographer to receive a National Endowment for the Arts grant; recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award at the 2011 Sony World Photography Awards.

New York-based photographer whose wide-ranging practice is informed by a fascination with historical painting and sculpture. His portraits appear regularly in The New Yorker, where he was appointed the magazine’s youngest ever staff photographer in 2013. Dukovic works across the fields of portraiture, fashion, beauty and documentary photography for magazines including Vanity Fair, Time, Rolling Stone, Wired and The New Yorker, as well as commercial clients such as Dior, Rag & Bone and MAC Cosmetics.

National Geographic magazine's Deputy Director of Photography; Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist for Spot News with Dallas Morning News In 1993.

Associate editor at The Boston Globe; two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, 1984 and 1985.

Advertising and art photographer; only American to be named in the top 10 of Adweek's 2011 top 100 illustrator, graphic artist, art director, design shop, photographer and student portfolios.

Photographer and founder of the Society for Photographic Education.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist for Feature Photography with the Associated Press in 1999.

Commercial, celebrity, and advertising photographer.

Sr. staff photographer during Eastman Kodak Company’s “golden age.” Montanus was the photographer for the iconic portrait of Walt Disney still used by The Walt Disney Company in many of their facilities, and the official White House photo of former president Gerald Ford. During his career with Kodak, Montanus took 55 of the 565 Colorama photos.

Landscape and nature photographer known for portraying the American western landscape. He is the primary photographer for more than 50 books and his work appears in many magazines, posters, and private collections.

Contemporary media artist, associate professor of art at The Cooper Union. His works include video, photography and literary essays dealing with the contemporary history of Lebanon, with particular emphasis on the wars between 1975 to 1991. In 2001, he received the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography award granted to "a photographer recognized for major achievements."

Noted photographer of classic Hollywood stars and political leaders between the 1940s and 1980s.

Four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist; former Director of Photography, Dallas Morning News.

American photographer noted for his work with Major League Baseball; photographed John Lennon and Yoko Ono during Lennon’s last recording sessions for Double Fantasy.

Photographer noted for documenting the effects of international events on the lives of people around the world. Pulitzer Prize winner for Feature Photography with the Denver Post in 1978.

Photographer and one of the first masters of color photography. PDN voted Turner as one of the 20 Most Influential Photographers of All Time; American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) awarded Turner its Outstanding Achievement in Photography honor in 1981; and he has been named a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens.

Photographer, darkroom artist; forerunner of photomontage.

Photographer who also received an Emmy Award in 1991 for his collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Karl Kernberger on the PBS documentary En Divina Luz: The Penitente Moradas of New Mexico. Varjabedian’s photographs have been exhibited and collected by museums including the William Benton Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Film

Founder and principal designer of Chicago-based MINIMAL, a studio creating brand-building products and experiences that connect emotionally with users producing brand icons and new ecosystems for companies like Xbox, Microsoft, Google, Dell, Nike, and Apple. Former global creative director at Nike, and former design leader in organizations such as IDEO, Thomson Consumer Electronics, Fortune Brands and Motorola.

Documentary film director/producer. Director of three films on cycling. Two films, “Off Road to Athens” and “Chasing Legends,” won awards at several notable film fests, including the Canada International Film Festival.

Sr. Visual Effects Supervisor at Dreamworks. Visual effects artist, producer, writer, director; VFX for PDI/Dreamworks Shrek series.

Academy Award winning digital production supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic, with credits including A.I., The Minority Report, The Matrix sequels, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Transformers, and Iron Man.

One of the team of engineers working on the imaging for NASA’s Lunar Orbiters for the Apollo 11 moon landing. Received a personal Emmy Award in 1998 for leading an international research team for Philips Digital Video Systems and Eastman Kodak's Spirit DataCine to get movies into High Definition Television in the 1990s. Also represented Eastman Kodak on the Television Standards Committee's that created the Digital Television Standards (ATSC) the Advanced Television Systems Committee, based in Washington, D.C. Today the ATSC has created the ATSC-3 broadcast standard being introduced around the country today.

Stop-motion animator recognized for her work on feature films including Coraline, Wallace & Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Chicken Run. Drilling has won two Primetime Emmy awards for her work.

3-D layout and character animation artist, founder and CEO of The Third Floor, now the largest international previs company. The Third Floor film credits include The Avengers, X-Men, Men in Black 3, Game of Thrones, Iron Man 2, and Avatar.

American cinematographer who collaborated with film director David Lynch on Eraserhead and Blue Velvet. Other film credits include River's Edge, Wild at Heart, Night on Earth, Hulk, and HBO’s Olive Kitteridge. He has won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography twice, for Wild at Heart and Night on Earth.

Visual effects artist; part of the team of VFX artists that created the Bengal tiger in the Oscar winning Life of Pi.

Stop-motion animator on the 2009 Academy Award-nominated film Coraline.

Animation producer on the PBS Kids show "Peg + Cat", nominated for multiple Daytime Emmy Awards.

Production manager on Frozen, Zootopia, Princess and the Frog.

Visual Effects artist; former technical director, PIXAR Animation Studios; received the 2007 Visual Effects Society award for “Outstanding Animated Character in a Motion Picture” for his work on CARS.

Director, Big Fish Films; creator of the Big Freeze Worldwide, the most advanced camera array system in the world, used in feature films, commercials, and during Red Carpet programs for the Oscars and other international award ceremonies.

Visual development artist on Disney’s Frozen, which as of 2015 was the highest grossing animated film of all time. Lee helped bring the snow queen’s magic to life and is behind the interior of the ice palace Elsa builds while singing “Let It Go.” She designed the snowflake that emits from Elsa’s foot and the columns, ceiling, balcony and chandelier of the palace.

Princess Grace Award Recipient.

American cinematographer and television director whose work includes the series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Breaking Bad. He has directed CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Breaking Bad, Law & Order: SVU, Hell on Wheels and Game of Thrones.

Animator on Coraline, Tangled, Wreck-it Ralph; associate technical supervisor on Zootopia.

Visual effects artist; part of the team of VFX artists that created the Bengal tiger in the Oscar winning Life of Pi.

Animator on Wreck-it Ralph, Frozen, rigging supervisor on Zootopia, character animator on Moana.

Visual effects artist on movies including the Oscar-winning Life of Pi, X-Men First Class, The Hunger Games – MockingJay Part I, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

Business and Entrepreneurship

President of Bare Wire Division at International Wire Group Holdings, Inc.; Chief Executive Officer of EF Johnson Technologies, Inc. (2010 – 2014).

Chairman of Bak Ambalaj Sanayi ve Ticaret AS, the largest packaging company in Turkey, and Deputy Chairman of the Bakioglu Group.

2016 James Beard Foundation award winner for his family’s restaurant, Brooks' House of Bar-B-Q in Oneonta, NY, one of five restaurants nationwide to win an "America's Classic" award that year.

CEO and chair of Papercone Corporation, the largest privately held specialty envelope manufacturer in the U.S. He is an active member of the Chief Executives' Organization, the World Presidents' Organization and the Young Presidents' Organization.

Chairman of the Board Delta Airlines; former Chairman and CEO, Eastman Kodak Company.

President and COO of edX, a nonprofit, open-source enterprise offering more than 380 online courses from more than 60 member institutions. Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX is focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies and game-like experiences.

CEO of Centara Hotels and Resorts, Thailand, operating 51 four- and five-star properties in nine countries throughout Asia and Africa.

Oil and Gas entrepreneur; Chairman and CEO of NiMin Energy; Managing Director, Chisholm Partners, LLC.

Chairman, Newtex Industries, Inc.

Chief Executive Officer, Echostar Corporation.

Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 1997; serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist; founder of Tivoli Systems; founder of White Glove Health.

President and Chairman of the Board, Redcom Laboratories, Inc.

President and CEO, True Value Company; appeared on Undercover Boss.

Chairman and CEO AMETEK Inc., a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with 2014 sales of $4.0 billion.

Managing director of Hiranandani Group of Companies; CEO and managing director of H-Energy.

CEO, The Rockport Group.

President and chief executive officer of Pretium Packaging, one of North America's leading manufacturers of plastic containers and closures

Co-founder, president and CEO, Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company, one of the largest hospitality companies in North America with hotels in both the US and Canada.

CEO of Revcontent, a native advertising network, powering 200 billion content recommendations a month.

Chief Financial Officer, Goodwill Industries International.

Founder and CEO, Partners + Napier; named one of Advertising Age's most influential women in the industry.

Formerly served as treasurer of Cisco Systems. In that role, Mr. Navas was instrumental in launching Cisco's initial public offering in 1990, listed as one of the 11 greatest IPOs of all time by BusinessInsider.com.

CEO StrongArm Tech, chosen as one of the 2017 Forbes 30-under-30.

Serial global entrepreneur, president and owner of Jyoshan, Inc.

President and Managing Partner BayFirst Solutions LLC.

COO of London Stock Exchange Group, rising from CIO. He is also a member of the board of directors of Borsa Italiana and a member of the International Advisory Board of Tadawul, The Saudi Stock Exchange. He is ranked 18th on Institutional Investor's 2015 Tech 50 list.

CEO of Konami Gaming (USA) and managing director of Konami Gaming Australia. Corporate officer of Konami Corporation (Japan), one of the world’s largest computer games manufacturers.

Former Chief Executive Officer, Easy Spirit Inc.; former president of Clarks.

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), PPG Industries.

Recipient of the “25 Women of Vision” award sponsored by the Information Security Magazine; managing director at The International Information Integrity Institute; formerly senior vice president in Corporate Information Security with Bank of America, and prior to that served as chief information security officer (CISO) at Xerox.

2009 Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year; CEO of Appvance.ai; Board member and chairperson of the Silicon Valley Forum.

Founder, President and CEO of Worldwide Speakers Group, a professional lecture services firm, providing speakers to corporate, trade, education, and commercial customers worldwide. Prior to founding Worldwide Speakers Group, Mr. Thomas helped lead the Washington Speakers Bureau.

Co-founder and CEO, Ardea Partners, LLC.; retired partner, Goldman Sachs.

Chief Information Officer and SVP, Eastman Kodak Company.

Sr. VP at Wegmans.

Engineering, Science, Technology, and Computing

Global CEO of Sotio (Czech Republic), a biotechnology company that specializes in active cellular immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Computer programmer, one of the designers of the original Apple Macintosh computer; chief architect and Apple Fellow for the Newton from 1987-1996; user interface architect at Microsoft from 1996-2001, resulting in the Internet Explorer Search, History, and Favorites panes. He was also a co-founder of the MSN Explorer project.

“Founding father” of excimer laser vision correction; Co-Founder, VISX, Inc.

President, CEO, and COO, Nikon Research Corporation of America; expert in advanced lithography.

Inventor of Angular and Senior Computer Scientist at Google.

Serial tech entrepreneur; CEO and co-founder of Bionic; co-founder of Clickable, SmartRay, Net-X; Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2008; author, Start-up Playbook.

Technical fellow, Microsoft; lead product innovator for Microsoft Kinect and Hololens; TIME Magazine's 2011 ’100 People of the Year'; 2012 National Inventor of the Year by the nonprofit Intellectual Property Foundation.

Genetic biologist; co-founder of African Ancestry, Inc.

Founder and creator of Exploding Kittens game; former chief design officer at Xbox Entertainment Studios; alternate reality game designer.

Founder and CEO, Datto, Inc.; data backup and disaster recovery expert; chosen for Forbes Magazine “30 Under 30.”

Co-founder of mobile payment company, Square.

Youngest recipient of the Google-O'Reilly Open Source Award

Creator of the jQuery JavaScript Library; Dean of Computer Science for Khan Academy; software engineer and entrepreneur.

Co-inventor of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays used in smartphones, digital cameras and HD and Ultra HDTVs. He was inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame in 2013 and received a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate his invention in 2014.

Vice president and founding principal of TDK Engineering Associates and vice president and founding principal of Aquarii Inc.; designed and installed the rotating beacon housed in the last spire of One World Trade Center

Deputy Director at NASA’s Langley Research Center and at the NASA Engineering & Safety Center at Langley.

Humanities and Academia

Distinguished Professor of Law and Science and Technology Studies at University of California-Davis School of Law.

President, National Technical Institute for the Deaf and RIT Vice President and Dean.

Author; director; critical theorist; professor of literature and Director of Graduate Studies, Literature Program, Duke University; Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California, Los Angeles.

Founding Academic and Executive Director of the Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Bradley University. Under Hills’ guidance, Bradley was ranked in the top 20 national universities for entrepreneurship programs by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Hills has been named one of the elite Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference Lifetime Award Members.

Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at Penn State University.

Recipient of the 2012 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Paz is a leader in the New York State farmworker human rights movement, and a former farmworker.

Psychologist, writer and researcher for Alfred Kinsey at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction from 1948 to 1956.

Journalism and Media

Managing Director, Commercial Operations, Formula 1

Vice President of Creative Marketing at the Walt Disney Company.

Cookbook Author, celebrity Chef and restauranteur, James Beard Award winner, co-founder of Tru.

Editor at Large, Bloomberg News.

Sr. Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Time Warner, Inc.

TV host, producer and sports-tech expert at ESPN, ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. Tech Expert on A&E's We Mean Business; contributor on the Today Show and CNN.

First recipient of the "Master of Wine" title in Asia.

Los Angeles-based entertainment reporter, producer, writer and on-air host. She has appeared on Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, Good Morning America and Today, among others, as an expert in entertainment and pop culture, and has maintaining a regular presence at red carpet Hollywood events.

Law, Military and Politics

United States Marine Corps retired, Navy Cross recipient.

Senior Intellectual Property counsel for GE Power & Water's Thermal business. Leads and manages all patenting operations for Thermal's large international IP portfolio. He is also an accomplished GE inventor holding several patents related to the reduction of carbon emissions and power plant efficiency.

Retired; Former assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space; former Director of the National Reconnaissance Office; former associate executive director of the Intelligence Community Management Staff.

Partner, Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, intellectual property practice.

Leads the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base, the first Army officer to lead the global combatant command.

Partner, RatnerPrestia; intellectual property law firm.

Senior partner, The Marbury Law Group, Reston, Va.; specializing in security clearance law, patents, copyrights and trademarks.

Sports

Mixed martial arts fighter, Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Defenseman, Vancouver Canucks.

Olympic Bronze Medal Winner, USA Equestrian Olympic Team, Summer 2004.