Ron Gordon

Ron Gordon is an American entrepreneur and former president of Atari.

Though his success has been in high technology, Ronald F. Gordon actually received his degree in Philosophy at the University of Colorado. During a talk he once gave at Stanford one of the students asked where Gordon received his Engineering degree. He replied "Well I don’t have an engineering degree." The student asked, "How could you have invented and developed all of those products?" Gordon explained, "I think engineering is important and we must have engineers but that new products come from new ideas and new ideas come from one’s philosophy and not from engineering laws which often define what you cannot do instead of what you can do."

In the mid-70's Ron Gordon took charge as president of Atari and made it into a leader in the video game industry. He then went on to pioneer the pocket language translator, the "HHC", a 6502 based hand-held computer, the world's first "Electronic University Network" (eLearning), and the 1st computer product operated by thought – The Mind Drive.

In September 1982 Ron Gordon came back from his third retirement and founded San Francisco-based TeleLearning Systems, Inc., thereby launching The Electronic University Network. Not only did he develop the technical and business concept, he also convinced major colleges and universities from around the country to join the system. One of the lesser known, John F. Kennedy University, became the first accredited institution to offer an entire degree program, an MBA, online.

Alongside his commercial ventures, Ron Gordon has also operated his non-profit institute, The Other 90%. "I’ve always been fascinated by the brain and learning how to use the other 90 percent of our brain so we finally decided we’re going to get this." One of the products to come out of this research was the MindDrive - an interface technology to control devices, computers, games, wheelchairs, etc. with just one's thoughts.