Each year the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences gives its highest honor, the Dean’s Award for Achievement, to someone who has made a substantial contribution to the practice of engineering or the applied sciences and/or has had an exceptional professional career. This year UB Engineering is pleased to honor Russell L. Agrusa (BS EE ’76), Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Foxborough, Massachusetts-based ICONICS, a leading international software developer of web-enabled visualization, Human-Machine Interface (HMI) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) applications for industrial automation and manufacturing.
Agrusa’s career began in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, where he developed software for turbine control and distribution control systems for coal fired and nuclear power plants, and the company’s first distributed control system, the Westinghouse Distributed Processing Family (WDPF). In 1983, he joined the Boston, Massachusetts-based Foxboro Company, leading the HMI product development of the Foxboro Intelligent Architecture series (IA) Distributed Control System, an important aspect of many industrial automation systems today.
In 1986 Agrusa launched ICONICS, and under his leadership, it has been a major supporter of open-connectivity via open standards in Manufacturing and Building Controls. ICONICS has over 250,000 installations worldwide and has 70 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies as its customers. Today organizations such as the Pentagon, U.S. Postal Service, Audi, Ford, Texas Instruments, Delphi, Honda, American Axle-Denver, Phoenix Sky Harbor, and London’s Heathrow airports have come to depend on ICONICS products for their mission-critical operations. ICONICS’ global sales have enjoyed double-digit growth for nearly ten years. Its awards include Inc.’s 500 Fastest Growing Company award in 1991 and 1992, and Microsoft’s 2008 Partner of the Year Award in Independent Software Vendors/Software Solutions for its GENESIS64™ HMI/SCADA solution. In addition to the United States, the company has locations in Australia, China, the Czech Republic, France, India, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Agrusa serves on the Board of Directors of the non-profit OPC Foundation, an automation industry dedicated to open connectivity via open standards, where he is also the Marketing Steering Committee Chair. He is a member of both the UB School of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, and our annual giving Delta Society. Russell and his wife Paula have made a generous philanthropic commitment to the School’s new building, where the auditorium will be named in their honor.
Paula has a degree in Accounting from the UB School of Management; she also earned her MBA in Finance from Boston University’s School of Management in 1986. As the Chief Financial Officer at ICONICS, she is essential to the running of the company. Beyond their successful work together, Paula and Russell enjoy exploring lighthouses, bike riding and boating on Cape Cod, and the company of their three Bichon Frise dogs.
The University at Buffalo School of Engineering is honored to name Russell L. Agrusa as an alumnus of great distinction whose continued career achievements merit our highest regard.