Alumni Portrait: James R. Von Ehr II

James R. Von Ehr II graduated from MSU in Computer Science in 1973. He went on to get his M.S. in Mathematical Sciences (Computer Science) at the University of Texas at Dallas in 1982.

From 1973 to 1984, Jim was manger in the Design Automation Department, of Texas Instruments and a senior member of the technical staff. He managed a group that developed three generations of CAD tools for integrated circuit layout over an 11 year period.

From 1984 to 1995, Jim was President, Chairman and CEO of the Altsys Corporation. He founded this company to develop graphics applications for personal computers. After developing several major products, which achieved total worldwide sales of over $100M in the company's 10 year history, the company was sold to Macromedia in January 1995.

From July 1992 to the present, Jim is President of the Renner Plaza Properties. This property management company, created to own and manage commercial real estate, currently owns two office buildings in Richardson, Texas.

From October 1993 to January 1995, Jim was CEO and Chairman of Tetragon. Tetragon was a spin-off of Altsys Corporation, developing games originally for the 3DO game system, and currently for the Sony PlayStation. Jim ran this as part-time CEO until the Macromedia acquisition, but was not heavily involved on a day-to-day basis. He is still on the Board of Directors.

During 1995 Jim was Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Arts Group and Director of Macromedia. He managed the former Altsys group developing the desktop publishing programs FreeHand, Fontographer, and xRes.

From January 1996 through June 1997, Jim was Vice President of Product Development/Java and Director of Macromedia. He managed a small group defining Java-based next-generation multimedia authoring tools for the Internet.

Over a ten year period, Jim has been the entrepreneur responsible for building Altsys Corporation from a small programming project in his dining room to a major player in the desktop publishing industry. After he sold Altsys to Macromedia in 1995, he remained actively involved in programming, design and management. He travels and speaks frequently at industry trade shows and conferences. He is still involved with two of his spin-off companies and has several venture capital investments in other companies. His current interest is primarily in his newest company, Zyvex, which he founded in 1997.

Jim is a strong supporter of the Department. He serves on the Department's Board of Visitors and his recent contributions have resulted in endowing the Richard Reid Scholarship.