James R. Scapa

Jim Scapa brings more than 37 years of business growth, innovation, and cultural stewardship to his role as founder, chairman, and CEO of Altair (Nasdaq: ALTR), a global leader in computational science and artificial intelligence.
 
In 1985, Jim and two partners identified a need and formed Altair with a focus on the then-new field of simulation using HPC. Today, through Jim’s leadership, the company serves more than 13,000 customers and employs more than 3,000 employees with 86 offices across 25 countries. Altair software – used across a broad range of industry sectors including automotive, aerospace, government and defense, finance, energy, electronics, life sciences, architecture, and construction – enables customers to enhance product performance, compress development time, reduce costs, and make smarter decisions. Growth has been achieved both through long-term nurturing of internal technology development, and by strategic acquisitions of complementary technologies which have been successfully integrated into Altair’s offerings.

Altair enables organizations across all industries to compete more effectively and drive smarter decisions in an increasingly connected world – all while creating a more sustainable future.
 
Altair employees worldwide share a tremendous pride in the entrepreneurial spirit and corporate culture based on transparency, honesty, innovation, and integrity. These core values are distilled as follows:

• Envision the future
• Communicate honestly and broadly
• Seek technology and business “firsts”
• Embrace diversity and take risks

Jim holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.