James H Watters

Dr. James Watters served Rochester Institute of Technology for more than 30 years, joining the Finance and Administration team in 1994 and spending over 20 years as Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration and University Treasurer. In that role he advised four RIT presidents and administered the university's roughly $1.1–1.2 billion annual operating budget, $337 million capital budget, a $1.5–1.6 billion endowment and working-capital portfolio, and a $400 million public debt portfolio. He oversaw an organization of more than 880 full-time employees and roughly 1,500 student workers. He announced his retirement effective June 30, 2026.

Before RIT, Watters spent his academic and early professional career at the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his BS, MS, and PhD. His tenure at RIT was marked by major institutional growth: he guided the construction of roughly 3 million square feet of facilities (including through the 2008–2009 recession), helped push RIT's research awards past $100 million for the first time in its history, and steered the university's international expansion, serving as vice chair of RIT's Global Delivery Corporation and in board roles for RIT Croatia (as chairman) and RIT Dubai (as trustee).

On the investing side, Watters functions as Chief Investment Officer of the RIT Venture Fund and is a director of Excell Partners, Inc., a seed-stage venture firm associated with RIT and the upstate New York region. Through these vehicles he has directed the university's early-stage investment activity, most notably RIT's 2020 investment in Cosimo X — making RIT the first U.S. university to invest directly in a tokenized (blockchain-based) venture fund.

His contributions have been recognized with RIT's Four Presidents Distinguished Public Service Award and the Isaac L. Jordan Sr. Faculty and Staff Award, and the university endowed the James H. Watters Professorship in the Saunders College of Business in his honor.

• Invests institutional and endowment-aligned capital into early-stage / seed ventures, primarily through the RIT Venture Fund and Excell Partners.
• Strong tilt toward new company formation and growth started by RIT alumni and faculty — backing the university's own innovation pipeline.
• Sector interest in blockchain and digital assets, cryptocurrency, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence, including regulatory technology, digital-asset creation, and market-infrastructure platforms.
• Willing to make first-mover / precedent-setting bets: RIT under Watters became the first U.S. university to invest directly in a tokenized venture fund.
• In his own words on the Cosimo X deal: *"RIT continues to support its commitment to new company formations and growth started by our alumni through an investment in Cosimo Ventures. We are impressed by the entrepreneurial experience and forward-thinking mindset of the COSIMO team and their innovative approach to venture investing."*