Jim Rutt, SFI Trustee Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow, passed away on May 27, 2026, at age 72.
Rutt's earliest involvement with SFI was as a researcher in residence in the early 2000s. From his office at SFI’s Cowan campus, he explored complex adaptive systems, agent-based models, and market economies. In 2003, he joined the SFI Board of Trustees, served as Board Chair from 2009–2012, and remained an active Board member until 2022.
Before becoming involved with SFI, Rutt played a key role in several major information and technology companies. Holding a business degree from MIT, Rutt was the CTO for the Canadian publishing giant Thomson Corporation, followed by a period as CEO of Network Solutions, a technology company that administered Internet domains in the .com, .net, and .org namespaces. In 2001, he negotiated the company's $15 billion acquisition by Verisign.
During that time, Rutt had been exploring complex systems. He stumbled across genetic algorithms and John Holland’s book, Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems, while at Thomson Corporation, and after retiring in 2001, he took what had become his main hobby — complex adaptive systems — and began building computer agents that could play the game Othello.
By 2002, Rutt was an SFI researcher in residence, pairing his interest in games with his business background, working with Doyne Farmer’s group simulating financial markets, and conducting research on genetic algorithms. “Jim started a weekend gaming club where we used the analysis of simple board games and video games as a means of gaining insight into complex phenomena,” recalls SFI President David Krakauer, who had joined SFI’s resident faculty shortly after Rutt’s arrival. “This style of reasoning carried over into Jim's fascination with politics, nations, and civilizations. I see his later interest in what he called Game B as a very natural extension of this fascination with generative rule systems.”
As a member of the Board, Rutt brought his deep interest in organizational structure to bear at pivotal moments for the Institute. “Jim was very caring, really understood what SFI was about. He was a maverick — spoke his mind — but was very concerned about structure and operations,” says SFI Professor Geoffrey West, who served as SFI President from 2005–2009. “Near the beginning of my presidency, we initiated an operations review. We brought in [Board members] Gary Bengier, Elizabeth Davis, and Joy Covey, and sat down with the books. Jim really held our feet to the fire, but without a big stick. I very much appreciated it.”
When the 2008 financial crisis hit, West and the Board faced difficult choices to keep the Institute afloat. “A lot of people wanted to fire postdocs and staff,” recalls West. “If we made that choice, I knew it would take decades to recover. Jim and [then-Board Chair] Bill Miller were in the minority of voices who said ‘preserve the science at all costs.’”
In 2009, Rutt followed Bill Miller as Chair of the Board. The Institute was still roiling from the financial crisis, and the situation looked precarious. “He had to navigate us through one of the most difficult financial periods,” says SFI Trustee Michael Mauboussin, who served as Board Chair after Rutt stepped down in 2012. By the time David Krakauer returned to SFI in 2015 — this time as President — the world had largely recovered from the crisis. “Jim laid the groundwork to draw David, and did so under austerity, making good decisions when things were hard,” recalls Mauboussin.
“I was very fortunate to have Jim and his wife, Celia, as friends and colleagues when I returned as President,” says Krakauer. “Jim and I would talk regularly about allocation of effort. He had discovered for himself that it is far better to focus on a small number of important projects than feel compelled to disperse one's attention over numerous small projects which are very likely to do well without you. This is hard-won wisdom, and Jim was ruthless in helping me prune distractions. As a Trustee, Jim was exemplary in his commitment, first and foremost, to brilliant people and to radical and rigorous new ideas.”
SFI Trustee Katherine Collins, who served as Board Chair from 2021–2025, adds, “Jim embodied all of the most essential qualities of our community — intense curiosity to surface new ideas, a finely tuned bullsh*t detector to challenge points that required it, and a perpetual good humor that gave everything the air of a joyful expedition.”
Beyond his skill and interest in leadership and organizational structure, Rutt’s curiosity was expansive. During his time in Santa Fe, he hosted a radio show at KSFR, a local public radio station. And later — after he and Celia had moved back to Virginia, after he co-launched a Maker’s Space in the town of Staunton, VA — he began a podcast, The Jim Rutt Show, where he could pursue his intense curiosity and dedication to open inquiry. Since the show’s first episode in July, 2019, with SFI External Professor Simon DeDeo, Rutt hosted 346 episodes.
“Jim had a big presence — a booming voice, intellect, and personality — and he liked to think about very big issues,” says Mauboussin. “He was a super smart guy, very engaged, not afraid to entertain wacky ideas, and always willing to talk with people from all walks of life.”
“He was mischievous, iconoclastic, and a complete terror on propriety to the very end,” says Krakauer. “He kept his interests and his mind running in high gear, which is something that I think all of us would desire. Jim's life was, in many ways, exemplary and burned at a very high temperature. We shall miss the man!”
Read the official obituary: https://www.obaughfuneralhome.com/obituaries/james-jim-rutt