James LeVoy Sorenson

Mr. Sorenson, a renowned American entrepreneur, invented and produced many ingenious medical devices that are standard equipment in health care today. He is known foremost for developing the computerized heart monitor, which was the first device able to accurately monitor conditions inside a living human heart. Among Mr. Sorenson’s other inventions are the first disposable paper surgical mask, the first plastic venous catheter and the first blood recycling system for trauma and surgical procedures. With more than 40 medical patents, it is likely that a Sorenson medical innovation is at work in every operating room and intensive care unit in the United States.

Bernard Daines

Mr. Daines has a rich legacy of innovation spanning several decades of achievements in the network communications industry, and is widely recognized as an expert in Ethernet technology. Mr. Daines has been instrumental in the development of the IEEE standards and innovative solutions for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet, as well as establishing the markets for Ethernet in the Local Area Network, the Ethernet Metro Area Network, and Ethernet in the First Mile. His contributions to the advancement of the networking industry have been widely recognized on a global basis.

Dr. Jim Kajiya

An Academy Award winner, Jim Kajiya began his career as a hardware designer. He worked for Quad Eight Electronics where he designed automated mix-down equipment and SMPTE time-code synchronizers. He then joined Evans and Sutherland as the project engineer for its frame buffer – the first commercially-available random access frame buffer.

Dr. Dinesh Patel

Dinesh Patel, a managing director and founding partner of vSpring Capital, is considered by many to be the father of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals in the Mountain West region. Founder, chairman and CEO of Ashni Naturaceuticals, a company focused on development and marketing of naturaceutical products, Patel has served as chairman and CEO of TheraTech, a biotechnology company which he took public and sold for $350 million to Watson Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Homer Warner

A Morris Collen award recipient, Dr. Warner, pioneered many aspects of computer applications to medicine. He was the first chair of the Department of Medical Informatics at the University of Utah, the first medical school in the U.S. to formally organize a medical informatics degree. He also served as CIO for the U’s Health Sciences Center, as president of the American College of Medical Informatics (with an award named in his honor), and was actively involved with the National Institutes of Health.

Drew Major

Drew Major was one of the founders of Novell and the lead architect and developer of NetWare for over 15 years. In 1981 Drew and his partners Kyle Powell, Dale Neibaur and Mark Hurst saw the value of enabling PCs to share files and other resources via local area networks (LAN). By 1991 NetWare was the “killer app” that was driving PC and most LAN deployments. Drew was inducted into the National Computer Industry Hall of Fame in 1999. He continues to be a passionate developer of high performance network server software.

Kevin B. Rollins

Kevin B. Rollins is the president and CEO of Dell. Prior to becoming CEO in July 2004, Mr. Rollins served as president and COO, vice chairman, and president of Dell Americas. The company employs approximately 50,000 team members worldwide and reported revenues of $45.4 billion for the past four quarters. Before joining Dell in April 1996, Mr. Rollins was vice president and partner of Bain & Co. management consultants.

Alan Kay

Mr. Kay, Hewlett-Packard Senior Fellow and President of Viewpoints Research Insituite, is best known as father of the personal computer, creator of the laptop concept, and inventor of overlapping-window interface and modern object-oriented programming. He received masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Utah, and was a researcher on the University of Utah team that developed 3-D graphics.

Shane V. Robison

Mr. Robison is Hewlett Packard’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Technology Officer. Robison is currently shaping HP’s technology agenda and corporate development efforts through mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, partnerships, and developing technology roadmaps. Prior to joining HP, he held key positions at Compaq, AT&T, Apple, and E&S. Robison is a graduate from the University of Utah, where he received bachelors and master degrees in computer science.

David Bailey

Mr. Bailey is most recognized as a Co-Founder and the initial Chairman/CEO of Iomega, Inc. He was selected as Entrepreneur of the Year in 1988 by the MountainWest Venture Group for inventions connected to Iomega. Mr. Bailey, who holds four U.S. Patents, attended Utah State University where he has been honored with a distinguished alumnus award in Electrical Engineering.

Nolan Bushnell

Mr. Bushnell is best known as the Founder of Atari. Having brought “PONG” to the masses, he is revered as the “Father of Video Games.” Mr. Bushnell, who has founded more than 20 companies, has been inducted into the “Video Game Hall of Fame” and the Consumer Electronics Association’s “Hall of Fame.” Mr. Bushnell attended the University of Utah where he is a “Distinguished Fellow.”

Dr. James Clark

Dr. Clark is one of Silicon Valley’s greatest visionaries. He is the only person in business history to have created and grown three $1+ billion companies from inception to public offering: Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), Netscape Communications, and Healtheon Corporation. He also founded MyCFO in 1999. Dr. Clark received a PhD from the University of Utah, where his thesis was the first implementation of “virtual reality.”

Stephen Aldous

Mr. Aldous served as both Director and Chief Technology Officer of Megahertz Corporation, a highly successful Utah-based data communications company that was acquired in 1994 by US Robotics and later by 3Com. He developed proprietary portable modem connector technology widely used in Megahertz products, for which he received several patents. Aldous received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Utah in 1985.

Edwin E. Catmull

Mr. Catmull has been honored with three Academy Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work, including an Oscar for significant advancements to the field of motion pictures as exemplified in Pixar’s RenderManTM.” Prior to Pixar, Catmull partnered with George Lucas as Vice President of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, Ltd. In 2000, he was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering. He is a PhD graduate from the University of Utah.

Spencer Kirk

Mr. Spencer Kirk joined Megahertz as Chief Financial Officer and served as Director, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the company. Kirk received a BA in Finance and an MBA from the University of Utah. He retired in 1996 to pursue a life-long dream of operating a cattle ranch and is active in the self-storage business.

David Spafford

Mr. Spafford joined Megahertz as Vice President of Sales & Marketing and later served as Vice President of Business Development. With innovative technology and Spafford’s marketing acumen, Megahertz shot to $120 million in sales in less than a decade. Spafford has a BS in Marketing from the University of Utah. He has furthered his University connections through a myriad of contributions, both in terms of time and money.

Thomas Stockham

Mr. Stockham has won Emmy, Grammy, and Oscar awards for his role in the development of digital recording. He has been Internationally recognized as the father of digital recording, and is credited with making the first digital recording in 1976. Stockham launched the technology that led to the production of compact discs and CD players. In 1998, he was awarded the Jack S. Kilby medal for Digital Signal Processing from the IEEE, and became a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Bruce W. Bastian

Mr. Bastian was the co-founder of WordPerfect Corporation, which by the 1980s was the world’s best-selling word processor. For his thesis project for a masters in music, later changed to computer science, he wrote a computer program to assist in writing marching band productions, and realized that a computer could be used to assist in writing large bodies of text as well. He combined his ideas with those of co-founder Alan Ashton to form WordPerfect.

Dr. John E. Warnock.

Dr. Warnock co-founded Adobe Systems in 1982, which has developed a stream of pioneering software products in graphics, publishing, and electronic document technology. Dr. Warnock is currently Adobe’s CEO and Co-Chairman. For over three decades he has been an innovator in software, holding four patents, a contributor of many articles, and is a frequent speaker on critical issues in the computer and publishing industries. He holds PhD, MS, and BS degrees from the University of Utah.

Alan Ashton

Mr. Ashton is well known in Utah as the co-founder of WordPerfect Corporation. With a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah, Alan taught at Brigham Young University, where he teamed up with graduate student Bruce Bastian to create a word processor program. More recently Alan has invested in many companies and has generously donated money to develop Thanksgiving Point.

David Evans

Mr. Evans is co-founder of Evans & Sutherland. Along with Dr. Ivan Sutherland, both computer science professors and pioneers in computer graphics technology, he had a theory that computers could be used as simulators. Prior to forming E&S, he served as head of UC Berkley’s work for the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Project Agency, and where he also led students in developing the SDS-940, the first commercial time-sharing computer system.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth

Mr. Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 - March 11, 1971) born in Beaver, Utah, invented the first electronic television in September 10, 1928, in San Francisco. Farnsworth also helped in the discovery of radar, infrared night lights, the baby incubator, and cold cathode ray tubes used in television and computers. He is recognized world-wide as a technology pioneer in America.

Raymond J. Noorda

Mr. Noorda was one of the founders of Novell, where he served as president, CEO, and chairman from 1983-1994, leading the company to become one of the world leaders in networking software. He retired in 1995 to oversee The Canopy Group, which invests in companies such as Caldera and Helius. He has long been an inspiration and supporter of numerous new IT businesses.

Ivan Sutherland

Mr. Sutherland met David Evans at Berkeley, were he was working with ARPA as the head of Information Processing Techniques. Mr. Sutherland was the creator of "Sketchpad," the world's first program for drawing geometric images on a computer screen. He is also credited as the founder of the GUI interface. Sutherland recieved his Bachelor's degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1959. He recieved his masters degree from Cal Tech, and a PhD from MIT in 1963.