Mr. Abbott graduated from Hightstown HS in 1986. He was part of the National Honors Society and played Varsity Soccer. He went on to Rutgers College of Engineering where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1991.
While at Rutgers Mr. Abbott was an active member of the community. He held various leadership positions within the Minority Engineering Educational Task (a chapter of the National Society Black Engineers) and served as president during his senior year. He won the NSBE Region One 1991 Technical Paper Contest (The Power of the Human Brain: A Computer Hardware and Software Representation), NSBE 1991 Scholarship Award, Paul Robeson 1990 Scholarship Award, Cap & Skull Society 1991 Induction, and the Minority Engineering Educational Task’s 1989 Member of the Year Award.
In 1988 while still in college Mr. Abbott founded AWARE Information Products that produced culturally oriented clothing and did contract custom designs. The company primarily sold its clothing at major shows such as the NY Black Expo, Kwanzaa Expo, and African-American Heritage Festival. AIP had sales of over $100K and donated over $3K to the Nyere Institute School in New Brunswick. He also co-founded the Black Awareness Forum at Hightstown High School where students were taught African History and involved in various personal development workshops. He also served on the planning committee for the new Paul Robeson Center and was instrumental in ensuring the new building remained a stand alone entity with its own identity. Mr. Abbott also contributed to numerous organizations such as HARU, the Society of Hispanic Engineers, and the Engineering Governing Council.
In 1996, Mr. Abbott and fellow Rutgers Alumni formed a multimedia development company called the Stimulation Station for which he served as CEO. In 1998 the company won a $5K best new venture award from the Wharton School of Business. The company went on to develop online animated content and games in addition to web sites and interactive CD-ROMs for clients such as Savoy Magazine, HOT 97, the SciFi Channel and Lauryn Hill. The company was featured in media outlets such as TV Guide and NV Magazine. In 2004 Mr. Abbott co-founded Predictive Chaos and served as its CTO. The company was an early participant in the mobile gaming space and developed wireline and wireless lottery gaming solutions.
Mr. Abbott starting in 1993 served for 6 years as the program coordinator and co-lead instructor for the Northern New Jersey chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates’ Computer Competition Program. The program worked with high school students from March to August each year teaching programming and analytical skills.
He currently works at VCE as a Senior Architect helping drive sales of over $10M in the NY Metro area. Prior to joining VCE he was a pre-sales systems engineer for 15 years at Oracle and Sun Microsystems helping drive more than $1B in revenues during his tenure. While at Sun Microsystems he was instrumental in directing the company to donate $50K to the National Society Black Engineers and participate on its Board of Corporate Advisors. Mr. Abbott also was on the planning committee to celebrate Assistant Dean Don Brown’s retirement from the School of Engineering and helped raise over $14K to establish a book award fund in his honor for engineering students in financial need. He also played a pivotal role during the RAAA website relaunch project several years ago and continues to provide advanced technical support when called upon.
Mr. Abbott has practiced Tae Kwon Doe for over 13 years and this past summer earned his 3rd degree black belt. Wayne has been married to his college sweetheart Pascale and is deeply indebted to her for all her love and support for over 27 years. He has two great children, Bergenoute & Wisnor, and currently lives in Edison, NJ.