Rony Abovitz

Rony Abovitz
Born1971 (age 52–53)
Israel
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of Miami (BS, MS)
Occupation(s)Engineer, businessman, MAKO Surgical Corp. founder

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]

Abovitz attended the University of Miami, where he eventually obtained a master's degree in biomedical engineering.[9] While attending the University of Miami, he also was a cartoonist.[8]

Career

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]

References

  1. ^ a b Ewalt, David M. (November 2, 2016). "Inside Magic Leap, The Secretive $4.5 Billion Startup Changing Computing Forever". Forbes. Retrieved 2012-05-04. Abovitz comes from an Orthodox Jewish background and was planning to leave work early to observe the Sabbath
  2. ^ "Stryker Corp. completes acquisition of MAKO Surgical Corp". MLive.com. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  3. ^ a b c d Berman, Nat (2017). "BusinessRony Abovitz: 10 Things You Didn't Know about Magic Leap's CEO". Moneyinc. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  4. ^ Roose, Kevin (21 October 2014). "Google Just Invested Millions of Dollars in a Very Eccentric Man". New York Magazine. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  5. ^ Lapowsky, Issie (24 February 2015). "Magic Leap CEO Teases 'Golden Tickets' for Its Augmented-Reality Device". Wired. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  6. ^ Robertson, Adi (16 June 2020). "What's Left of Magic Leap?". The Verge. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Rivero, Nicolas (September 27, 2016). "Rony Abovitz's Magic Leap May Reshape Your Reality". Broward Palm Beach New Times.
  8. ^ a b c Hempel, Jessi (21 April 2015). "The Man Behind the Hidden World of Magic Leap". Wired. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ Kafka, Peter (25 January 2018). "Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz is coming to Code Media". Recode. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
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