Thank you Mr. Ronald Zarrella

Ron Zarrella has been a strong supporter of the FIRST Robotics Program since 2000.

Mr. Zarella joined the FIRST Board of Directors in January 2000. He replaced J.T. Battenberg as the GM representative on the Board when Delphi separated from GM. Mr. Zarrella was then President of GM North America.

 In 2001 Mr. Zarella left GM to become the CEO of Bausch & Lomb. By 2003 he furthered his support of FIRST Robotics by approving funding for FRC team 73, the Visioneers. For 2004 he approved the plan for Bausch & Lomb to expand to 2 teams and the soon to be announced FIRST Finger Lakes Regional Competition. His role with FIRST expanded as he worked with Ursula Burns (Xerox) and Al Simone (RIT) to form the Executive Advisory Board for the New Regional.

Bausch & Lomb now supports 5 FIRST Robotics Competition teams, the Finger Lakes FIRST Regional Competition, and the Finger Lakes FIRST Lego League competition. These programs and competitions have and will continue to inspire thousands of young adults all throughout the Finger Lakes Region. For this we would like to thank Mr. Zarella for his years of support of FIRST.