John Warnock

Award Recipient
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John E. Warnock is co-chairman of the Board of Directors of Adobe Systems, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1982 with Charles Geschke. Dr. Warnock was President of Adobe for his first two years and Chairman and CEO for his remaining 16 years at Adobe.

John has pioneered the development of graphics, web and electronic document technologies that have revolutionized the field of publishing and visual communication. Dr. Warnock holds seven patents.

John’s career has been chronicled by the numerous awards for technical and managerial achievement. A partial list of awards includes: Entrepreneur of the Year from Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, and Inc. Magazine; University of Utah Distinguished Alumnus Award; Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Software Systems Award. John has also received the Edwin H. Land Award from the Optical Society of America, the Bodleian Medal from Oxford University, and the Lovelace Medal from the British Computer Society. John is a distinguished member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received Honorary Degrees from the University of Utah and the American Film Institute.

Before co-founding Adobe Systems, John was the Principal Scientist at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Prior to joining Xerox, John held key positions at Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation, IBM, and the University of Utah.

John holds B.S and M.S degrees in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, all from the University of Utah.


Awards

2008 Computer Entrepreneur Award
“For inventing PostScript and PDF and helping to launch the desktop publishing revolution and change the way people engage with information and entertainment.”
Co-recipient with Charles M. Geschke
Learn more about the Computer Entrepreneur Award