Rony Abovitz
Rony Abovitz (born 1971)[1] is an American entrepreneur. Abovitz founded MAKO Surgical Corp., a company manufacturing surgical robotic arm assistance platforms, in 2004. MAKO was acquired by Stryker Corporation in 2013 for $1.65B.[2]
Rony Abovitz | |
---|---|
Born | 1971 (age 48–49) |
Education | B.S. University of Miami |
Occupation | Engineer, Businessman |
Parent(s) | Isaac and Itta Abovitz |
Abovitz is the founder of the Mixed reality/Augmented Reality (MR/AR) company Magic Leap and served as its CEO from its founding in 2010.[3][4][5] In May of 2020, amid financial strife for the company, Abovitz stepped down from his position.[6]
Early life
Abovitz was born to an Orthodox Jewish family,[7] the eldest of five children of Isaac and Itta Abovitz.[8] His parents immigrated from Israel to Cleveland, Ohio in 1962.[8] Abovitz's father worked in the real estate industry and his mother was an artist.[3] He grew up playing Atari video games, and at the age of 8 he received his first computer which he says was an Apple Macintosh [Introduced in 1984, when he was 13].[9] In 1983, his family moved to Hollywood, Florida where he attended Nova High School in Davie, Florida.[8] After high school, Abovitz aimed to have a career as a scientist.[3] He attended the University of Miami, where he eventually obtained a master's degree in biomedical engineering.[10] While attending university, he was also a cartoonist.[9]
Career
In 2011, Abovitz founded a virtual reality company called Magic Leap, based in Florida. The company maintains offices in New Zealand, in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Mountain View, California.[9]
In 2017, Abovitz spoke at the Black Tech Week annual conference, where he shared some of his goals for the Magic Leap company.[3]
In February 2018, Abovitz spoke at Recode’s Code Media conference about the augmented reality technology his company was developing.[11]
References
- Ewalt, David M. "Inside Magic Leap, The Secretive $4.5 Billion Startup Changing Computing Forever". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
- "Stryker Corp. completes acquisition of MAKO Surgical Corp". MLive.com. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
- Berman, Nat (2017). "BusinessRony Abovitz: 10 Things You Didn't Know about Magic Leap's CEO". Moneyinc. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
- Roose, Kevin (21 October 2014). "Google Just Invested Millions of Dollars in a Very Eccentric Man". New York Magazine. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
- Lapowsky, Issie (24 February 2015). "Magic Leap CEO Teases 'Golden Tickets' for Its Augmented-Reality Device". Wired. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
- Robertson, Adi (16 June 2020). "What's Left of Magic Leap?". The Verge. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
- Ewalt, David M. (November 2, 2016). "Inside Magic Leap, The Secretive $4.5 Billion Startup Changing Computing Forever". Forbes.
Abovitz comes from an Orthodox Jewish background and was planning to leave work early to observe the Sabbath
- Rivero, Nicolas (September 27, 2016). "Rony Abovitz's Magic Leap May Reshape Your Reality". Broward Palm Beach New Times.
- Hempel, Jessi (21 April 2015). "The Man Behind the Hidden World of Magic Leap". Wired. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
- D'Onfro, Jillian (1 January 2015). "Google's $500 Million Man: Meet The 'Weird' Guy Trying To Invent A New Computing Platform". Business Insider. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
- Kafka, Peter (25 January 2018). "Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz is coming to Code Media". Recode. Retrieved 21 February 2018.