David Rolston

Forterra

Dave Rolston has more than 35 years of experience in the high technology industry. His experience spans a broad spectrum of industries, applications, and technologies including extensive involvement in simulation and training, graphics applications, imagery, gaming, artificial intelligence, entertainment, and early versions of the internet. During his career Dave has also performed in a broad spectrum of roles – including a variety of technical, business, operational, and general management assignments. Dave is currently Chairman and CEO of Forterra Systems, a company that develops virtual worlds for the internet. Before Forterra he served as VP of Engineering for ATI and was responsible for the design of graphics chips that drive a large percentage of the world’s PC’s and game consoles. Prior to joining ATI Dave was CEO of Multigen-Paradigm, a company that provides foundational software that is used throughout the simulation industry and performs content development for a variety of applications. After Multigen-Paradigm was acquired by CA Dave served in a Senior Vice President role in which he managed Multigen-Paradigm, Viewpoint, and several other content-development organizations. Before Multigen-Paradigm he worked for Silicon Graphics where he started as the Director of Marketing and completed his work there as the GM of the Advanced Graphics Division. Prior to SGI Dave was the GM of a division of ESL, a subsidiary of TRW, that developed software applications for the defense and intelligence community as well as commercial organizations. Before ESL Dave was one of 95 engineering fellows at Honeywell, Inc. – responsible for all corporate activity in artificial intelligence. Dave has a BS in civil engineering, an MS in industrial engineering, and a PhD in computer science with an emphasis in simulation and artificial intelligence. Dave is a registered professional engineer and has been involved in a variety of activities in the engineering community including teaching at several universities and serving with several industry consortiums. He holds several patents, has published a large number of technical papers and a best-selling book on Artificial Intelligence.