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]
Abovitz is the founder of the Augmented Reality (AR) company Magic Leap and was its CEO from its founding in 2010.[3][4][5] In May 2020, amid financial strife for the company, Abovitz stepped down from his position.[6]
Early life and education
Abovitz was born to an Orthodox Jewish family,[1] the eldest of five children of Isaac and Itta Abovitz.[7]
In 1962, his parents immigrated from Israel to Cleveland, Ohio in 1962.[7] 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].[8] In 1983, his family moved to Hollywood, Florida where he attended Nova High School in Davie, Florida.[7] After high school, Abovitz aimed to have a career as a scientist.[3]
In 2011, Abovitz founded a augmented reality company called Magic Leap, based in Florida. The company maintains offices in New Zealand, in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Mountain View, California.[8]
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.[10]