Randy Forgaard

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Randy Forgaard,
Chief Illusioneer at Illusionator, has loved engineering, entertainment, and entrepreneurship for as long as he can remember. Randy was co-founder, with Charles H. Ferguson, and chief technology officer of Vermeer Technologies, the company that created Microsoft FrontPage, and holds bachelors and masters degrees in computer science from MIT. A magician for 35 years, Randy is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle (London), is a lifetime member of the Society of American Magicians, co-authored Magician Pocket Mirrors with Burton S. Sperber (A Real Miracle Series, 2003), and has perhaps the largest collection in the arcane but historically engaging collecting field of magician tokens (coins issued by and for magicians). Since first visiting Disneyland's Haunted Mansion attraction in 1970 at age 11, Randy has been a devoted fan of the Haunted Mansion itself (with countless visits to Disneyland and Walt Disney World and more recently to Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris) and of the entertainment potential of haunting in general. Since 2002, he has been a section head at the annual Hollis Upper Elementary School Haunted House of Hollis, New Hampshire, blending illusion and dread with increasingly detailed, elaborate, and appreciatively frightful results. At Illusionator, Randy brings his haunting, magic, and engineering expertise to the enjoyable and fascinating task of haunt illusion design and electronic control. He is also the Illusionator webmaster and graphic designer.