44 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine ARTS, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT ROGER LEE HOOKS JR. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Supermicro Hayward, CA Roger Lee Hooks Jr. is the creative director of Supermicro, a company specializing in the design and manufacture of storage systems, servers and other IT infrastructure solutions. He brings to the role more than 35 years of expertise in design and business leadership, including nearly a decade as principal of an independent firm. Mr. Hooks’ interest in the arts developed at a young age, inspired by his father and grandmother’s artistic pursuits. Though talented, both encountered structural obstacles to pursuing careers in the fine arts and eventually found success in other endeavors, with Mr. Hooks’ father becoming a master machinist at NASA. A well-rounded student with an eye for design, Mr. Hooks initially hoped to become a physician and completed the majority of his college preparatory coursework early. Though his creative pursuits were supported by his family, he had not considered that he could become a professional artist until 1988, when he was paid $75 to illustrate a poster for a Santa Cruz surfing competition, a large amount for a teenager. Recognizing that his real passion lay in the arts, not in health care, Mr. Hooks changed his educational path to focus on drafting, photography and design classes and earned an Associate of Science in design and visual communications at an Arizona art school in 1989. As a junior commercial artist, Mr. Hooks secured an entry-level role as a pay stub artist and advanced quickly, becoming a typesetter and semi artist before moving on to production roles. A quick learner known for his flexibility, he mastered numerous areas of commercial art and design and went on to join a graphic design firm in the early 1990s. Building on this experience and his professional reputation for excellence, he established Hooks Creative in 1996 to cater to clients in the technology and personal electronics sectors, including electronics retail. After the dotcom crash of the early 2000s, many of the firm’s core clients downsized or ceased operations, and in 2003, Mr. Hooks wound down the firm to pursue other opportunities. Mr. Hooks worked briefly with a manufacturer of radio-controlled helicopters before joining
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