Erik Ritchie

BERKELEY, Calif.—EnChroma, creators of EnChroma eyewear for color blindness, has named Erik Ritchie as CEO. Ritchie brings 25 years of business management experience spanning organizational strategy, brand management, performance marketing, merchandising, talent management, and e-commerce operations. Most recently, he served as chief commercial officer for Zenni Optical, where he led all merchandising, marketing, UX/UI, and IT functions. As a consultant, he led branding, advertising and/or communications campaigns for major brands such as Microsoft, Google, Blue Shield, Red Bull, Ticketmaster, and other Fortune 500 clients.

“Erik brings a unique combination of experience in the optical, consumer and technology industries to EnChroma and really understands what consumers want in optical products,” said Bob Dykes, executive chairman of EnChroma. “He has a clear vision for expanding EnChroma’s market lead in solutions for color vision deficiency, and is the right person to help the company reach even more people who are color blind or suffer from low vision.”

Ritchie told VMAIL he sees a huge opportunity to grow EnChroma’s share of the market for color blindness eyewear, as well grow the market overall. “Just in the U.S. alone there are 13 million people who suffer from color blindness, and that market has traditionally been underserved,” he said. “One of my goals is to make sure we get the word out and raise awareness of not only the issue, but the solutions to that issue, and that we do that both in the U.S. and globally.”

Click on the video below to watch VM's "A Conversation with EnChroma's Erik Ritchie," an exclusive interview with VM’s Andrew Karp.

EnChroma’s patented lens technology is engineered with special optical filters that increase the separation between color channels to help people with color blindness see colors more vibrantly, clearly and distinctly. The company advocates for “color accessibility” through its EnChroma Color Accessibility Program. The program helps public venues, schools, state parks, libraries, museums and other organizations purchase and loan EnChroma glasses to color blind students and guests to help make schoolwork that involves color, colorful exhibits, attractions and/or experiences accessible to the color blind.