All the charm of a rock star, all the smarts of a mad scientist, Rick Kukulies is beloved around the halls of NuVo as a perfectly blended music enthusiast and technology expert. A respected champion in the development and evolution of the whole home audio industry, Rick's career path has gleefully entwined his passion for both music and engineering at every step and turn.

A man of well-appointed priorities, once upon a time his most prized possession was a Transcriptors Turntable. Music, and the joy he takes from listening to it, experiencing it, has been a constant throughout his life. His interest in technology started a little later, after taking a few electronics courses in high school. He then went on to attend Arizona State University for Electrical Engineering.

Through those teen/early adult years he spent his time, wisely -- working in a Hi-Fi store.

Upon graduation, Rick started Tangent Systems Inc. with three college buddies. Manufacturing recording production and mixing consoles, he served as the company's president, from 1974 to 1983, overseeing operations and sales into hundreds of studios around the U.S. and Europe.

From there, Rick went on to become Kustom Inc.'s vice president of engineering. Kustom, an established and well-known manufacturer of guitar and keyboard amplifiers, allowed the continued marriage of his interests, but from a new angle: that of sound creation, instead of recording.

Through Davitt & Hanser's acquisition of the Kustom brand in 1989, Rick was brought on as chief engineer on a new project for the amplifier-makers: home audio.

Through the 90’s, Rick turned out groundbreaking work for Kustom Home Sound, developing products for the promising industry of whole home audio. Being among the first to manufacture and market an all-in-one, multi-source, multi-zone audio system, the division of Kustom dedicated to bringing distributed audio home began to grow, and in 2002 spun off to become its own company: NuVo Technologies, LLC.

Serving as Chief Technology Officer for NuVo, Rick has pioneered products that enrich the lives and styles of audiophiles all over the world. He has brought his technological genius to the service of music-lovers time and time again; to capture and record, to create and enhance, to reproduce and distribute.

Rick owns an impressive music collection (doubling up on vinyl and CD on some of his most favorite recordings), and does enjoy a good guitar strum-session as a hobby…though he maintains it is mostly for his ears only.

Oh, and he's funny too.