Ry Smith is an entrepreneur, product innovator and artist. Ry attended Deerfield Academy and Princeton University. At Princeton he was Editor-in-Chief of the Princeton Engineer (Magazine) and a member of the national champion Lightweight Football team. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) from Princeton, followed by a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Stanford University, he founded KRS Electronics, a company that manufactured magnetic tape products he designed. These were sold to radio stations and educational institutions throughout the world. KRS equipment was also used at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and at the 1964 World's Fair.

A background music version was patented and licensed to Automatic Canteen Corporation. They sold this unit under license for 17 years. KRS was sold to Data Products Corporation in 1968.

In the following years Ry licensed other innovations in magnetic tape and disk drives to Ricoh (Japan), Texas Instruments, Fisher-Price, Ampex and other companies. These innovations included the following: The world's first reversible continuous loop tape. The first single motor drive, multiple cartridge tape recorder/player. A very low cost, single motor, belt driven tape recorder featuring slide-in reel loading. A miniature disk drive that used a unique optical system to automatically compensate for temperature variations.

A back-lighted photo display system was developed and sold to Kodak retailers and other retailers throughout the world.

Ry also developed consumer products including bicycle and motorcycle locks and alarm systems and a hand held bicycle rack system. He also developed a unique sweetener dispenser sold through cook stores.

He founded the Internet-based Altos Education Network which hosted the first online Seminar on Raising Capital. He also developed an in-depth course on starting businesses. Ry was also President of Magnecomp a company that produced plated computer disks. Magnecomp was acquired by DataDisc. Previous to that, Ry was in charge of the Electronic Engineering Department at National Semiconductors (when located at Norwalk, CT).

Ry has written technical articles on his designs published in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) and in the Audio Engineering Society (AES). He has also lectured on entrepreneurship at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and on the process of creating and developing products at the Stanford Engineering School. He has also been a guest speaker at The Society Of Plastics Engineers.