Meet the Team

Ron Fisher · Executive Director & Founder

Ron Fisher is the executive director & founder of Illumination NYC. He is a serial entrepreneur who sold his first company to Mindbody and is now the CEO & Co-Founder of a software start-up, Mesh. 10 years ago he had an events company that hosted The Chainsmokers and other musical acts in lofts in NYC and it was then that he began the process of producing a light art festival in New York City. Now he is passionate about turning Illumination NYC into the premier vehicle for funding light artists to bring their works into reality!

Roberto Montenegro · Creative Director

Roberto Montenegro is a queer Los Angeles born, NYC based digital artist who uses video as his medium. Starting his career as an aerospace engineer for the US government, Roberto transformed his experience in 3D modeling into a passion for creating visuals using 3D modeling software. He now creates and animates original video content specifically designed to inspire and awe audiences for live events and concerts. His expertise ranges from 2D and 3D animation and visualization, stage design, and creative direction in multimedia. For the past 15 years Roberto has worked all over the world on shows at Art Basel Miami, Ultra Music Festival, Heritage of Pride NYC, and Illumination Light Art Festival. He has also been the creative director for The Pines Party for the past seven years; a long standing non-profit that has raised over $3.7M. Roberto cofounded the Free Radical Design Group with his partner, Guy J Smith.

Ethan Pope · Legal

Ethan Pope is Vice President of Illumination NYC. He started in FinTech at the ripe age of 15 to run business development, and operations for a now 9 figure valued software business. When he isn't at his day job as Chief of Staff, you will find him cooking up side projects on MATLAB or an Arduino, and/or embarrassing himself on the golf course. With a degree in electrical engineering from NYU's Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn, Ethan is passionate about creating opportunities for engineers and artists to translate their ideas into applications that make life just a bit more radical.

Sam Skalbeck · Co-Producer

Sam Skalbeck is a multi-disciplinary creative artist with an eclectic background of event and theatrical production experience. As a professional performer, he’s traveled the world dancing, singing, and acting on stages, screens, and cruise ships. As a producer, he enjoys organizing trash-pickup-dance-parties with LitterRally, while currently working as the Events Marketing Manager at Charlie’s Chalk Dust. He’s delighted to return to New York City for another magical year of Illumination, designing merchandise and building brand partnerships.

Flo Tong · Co-Producer

Flo Tong is the Operations Director of Illumination NYC. She is a graduate of NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering where she was student body president. Through hosting an event, an idea that would become Illumination was fostered and she has since brought on up-and-coming student artists who were featured in our first festival. She currently works in Strategy and Operations for the cybersecurity company Snyk and is enthusiastic to continue to provide a launchpad for young artists at Illumination NYC.

Joe Petrowski · Co-Producer

Joe Petrowski is a Co-Producer of Illumination NYC. At a very young age, he was fascinated with holiday Christmas lights and all things lighting. Over the years, he designed and synchronized holiday light shows and raised more than $150,000 for various charities. When Joe isn’t nerding out over ticketing at his day job, he is a lighting designer and operator for entertainment industry including Gay Men’s Chorus, The Box, Reading Buddies TV Show, Art Bath, Walt Disney World. He is thrilled to be on the team and looking forward to illuminating the NYC night.