Robert “Buzz” Kross is senior vice president of Design, Lifecycle and Simulation at Autodesk and is responsible for defining and producing the world’s best products for life cycle management, simulation, mechanical design and manufacturing engineering. He drives the development of Autodesk products including Autodesk PLM 360, Autodesk Product Design Suite, Autodesk Factory Design Suite and Autodesk Inventor software, which helps users go beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping.
Kross co-founded and ran Woodbourne Inc., a company providing parametric design tools for the AutoCAD platform, which was acquired by Autodesk in 1993. By that point, Kross brought a wealth of invaluable experience to his new role as a director for Autodesk’s manufacturing division. In 1998, the division introduced Autodesk Inventor, the company’s first product not based on AutoCAD and now one of its most successful product offerings.