Hiroyuki Fujita has capitalized on the two areas of innovation and commercialization predicted to drive the U.S. economy in the near future: health care/medical and clean energy. He is the founder, president and CEO of Quality Electrodynamics (QED), a manufacturer of state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coils. In 2009, Forbes magazine named QED one of the 20 Most Promising Companies in America. In 2010 and 2011, Inc. magazine listed QED in the Inc. 500, calling it one of America’s fastest growing companies and Fujita one of the country’s top entrepreneurs. Ernst & Young bestowed its Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award on him in 2010, the same year that he founded eQED, a solar energy company that manufactures and distributes highly efficient, cost-effective, reliable and easy-to-install solar microinverters.

Fujita, a Japanese national, came to Cleveland in 1992 to attend Case Western Reserve University (Ph.D., 1998), which presented him with its Outstanding Recent Alumni Award in 2010. An adjunct professor of physics, radiology and electrical engineering at CWRU and the University of Queensland, Australia, he holds 15 patents and has published more than 30 papers and abstracts in respected engineering, imaging and physics journals. He has received numerous awards for excellence in imaging technology and manufacturing.