Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Altair Engineering
Search every verified James Scapa interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. James Scapa, founder and CEO of Altair Engineering, has discussed the convergence of simulation, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence. He stated that Altair is at the beginning of bringing simulation together with machine learning to create digital twins, and described the company's cloud-native data prep and AutoML platform, SmartWorks. Scapa also emphasized the importance of responsible technology implementation, saying that when harm is seen, companies must have the courage to step back and make adjustments beyond financial gain. He noted that Altair has been discussing these topics for a longer period than many others in the industry. Scapa has also spoken about company culture and leadership. He described himself as closer to a "wartime CEO" and said he believes in being quick to admit mistakes, talking about them openly, and learning from them. He stated that he fights politics in organizations by forcing broad communication and transparency. Scapa noted that Altair's leadership team is international and diverse, and said the company has pushed gender diversity, aspiring to have a 50 percent female workforce including at the C-suite and board level. He also discussed his background, saying his parents' immigrant and Holocaust survivor experiences gave him a "world citizen" view that helped him take Altair international.
“When we IPO we had about 800 people who had equity in the business. A lot of founders will hold on to all the equity but I really distributed a lot and we continue to do that. It was super gratifying to me; many millionaires and multi-millionaires have come out of this, and it's transformed their lives.”
“I have controlling interest still, which is not usual in a public company, but it gives me the ability to balance correctly the long view, making decisions in the context of envisioning the future and not just the short term, while also balancing what the shareholders need.”
“I've made many mistakes, especially around people. I've opened offices in 26 or 27 countries, traveled extensively, recruited local leaders, and sometimes had to correct mistakes including removing people who stole or cheated us. Trust is essential but when violated, I'm very firm about it.”
“We envision the future and make decisions in the context of that longer future, step by step. We're always looking out there, which I think is exciting and fun for people.”
“One of the things I really push hard is broad communications. Politics creeps into companies when information is selectively shared. We fight that by communicating broadly and internationally about what we're doing right and wrong, challenges, and market conditions to make people feel included.”
“Diversity is big for us. Our leadership team is very international and diverse, with people from Germany, Italy, France, India, China, Japan. We have pushed gender diversity especially in the last 10 years, aspiring to have 50 percent female workforce including C-suite and board.”
“I believe in being quick to admit mistakes, talking about them openly, learning from them, and moving on. Active listening is super important because people want to be heard.”
“Success does not come without a price. It is a painful process. I worked hard on myself, on understanding others, and at times was unable to trust people because they didn't earn it. It's not easy to succeed.”
“When I took the business public, many told me I would hate it, but I enjoyed the challenge because I love change. I've had to morph from leading a small team to a large public company and adapt at every stage.”
“I built a platform called Wave for consumer digital content with music, books, podcasts, using machine learning. We had about 15,000 monthly active users but shut it down. If I had been more active on social media like Elon Musk, it might have been a killer product.”
“I think honestly that Altair has been talking about these things much longer than many others in industry — we came at it in a very evolutionary way, not revolutionary. Simulation, HPC and now data and AI are converging into digital twins enabled by high performance computing.”
“With the acquisition of Datawatch we really suddenly opened a world to ourselves that was all about financial services, banking, healthcare and other markets — it expanded where Altair could apply its technology.”
“It's all about listening and respecting people — as a leader one of the things I teach is vulnerability. When we acquire companies we wrap our arms around the people, understand their skills, and try not to dominate them.”
“I'm a huge proponent of women in tech — great ideas come from everywhere, and we must build systems and role models so young women and underrepresented kids see people like them in those roles.”
“We need to be responsible when implementing technology; when we see harm we must have the courage not to just think about financial gain but to step back and make adjustments.”
Jim Scapa is always accessible and open to hearing new ideas, appreciates a challenge, inspires the organization to look to the ...
Episode 8 of Future Says Series 2 (https://www.altair.com/future-says/) features Altair's founder and CEO, Jim Scapa, as we delve ...
Jim Scapa co-founded Altair in the mid-'80s and has grown it into a public company focused on high-performance computing and ...
Altair CEO James Scapa grew up in a working-class immigrant family in Queens, NY, and went on to co-found a company that's ...
Inc. Magazine Interview: From Start-up to Publicly Traded, Lessons I Learned Along the Way.
In this video, Altair Chairman & CEO James R. Scapa describes the company's mission to radically change the way organizations ...
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