James Scapa

James Scapa left his job as a computer engineering consultant for General Motors to start Altair Engineering with two coworkers in 1985. He has been Altair's CEO since its founding and took the company public in 2017. He owns 24% of Altair's shares. Based in Troy, Michigan, Altair provides software in engineering simulation, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. Scapa grew up in New York as the son of Greek immigrant Holocaust survivors and graduated from Columbia before leaving the East Coast. According to Forbes he resides Atherton California and has an estimated new north of $2.2 billion.