Lucasfilm Hires Richard Kerris as New CTO

Richard Kerris has left Apple to become the new CTO of Lucasfilm, filling the post vacated by Cliff Plumer, who's now with Digital Domain.

As CTO, Kerris will oversee the technical operations and help develop and execute the company's technology strategy for Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, LucasArts, Lucasfilm Animation, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and Lucas Online.

At Apple, Kerris has held numerous positions, from managing special projects for the applications division to managing the company's technical marketing strategies for professional applications such as Final Cut Pro, Shake, DVD Studio Pro, Logic, Motion and iLife. Kerris was also senior director of Developer Technologies for Apple's Worldwide Developer Relations group, where he managed teams supporting Unix, Java and Cocoa developers working to bring their applications to Mac OS X.

Prior to joining Apple in 2001, Kerris was the director of Maya Technologies at Alias|Wavefront, where he was responsible for working on strategic partnership and licensing agreements that brought parts of Maya's 3D technology into new markets. Throughout his seven years at Alias|Wavefront, Kerris applied his extensive hands-on experience to the creation, marketing, sales and distribution of professional video and digital 3D graphics products. Specifically, he led the company's effort to bring Maya to the Macintosh and was responsible for developing Alias|Wavefront's OEM relationship with Quantel. Earlier in his career, Kerris held senior management positions at both Electric Image and Silicon Graphics.

Kerris is an active member of VES (Visual Effects Society) and SMPTE (Society of Motion Pictures and Television) and sits on the VES Technology Advisory board. He received his Bachelor of Science in Communications from Fitchburg State College, in Massachusetts.