Randy Ubillos

Randall Hayes Ubillos is the original software engineer behind Adobe Premiere and Macromedia Final Cut.

SuperMac and Adobe
Ubillos originally worked at SuperMac Technology to develop software for its VideoSpigot video capture card. He created a working demo of a QuickTime-based video editor called ReelTime in about 10 weeks while QuickTime was still in beta. The ReelTime project was acquired by Adobe Systems in August 1991 and was released in December 1991 as Adobe Premiere 1.0. Ubillos also left SuperMac to join Adobe, where he assembled a small team that quickly delivered new versions on an annual basis through Premiere 4.0.

Macromedia and Apple
In 1995, a Macromedia board member approached Ubillos with a plan to develop a new video program for faster computers. The original 18-month plan took about 3 years before Macromedia Final Cut was demonstrated at the NAB Show in April 1998.

Apple Computer's interim CEO Steve Jobs expressed interest in the project and acquired Final Cut's source code and its development team in May 1998. It was released by Apple in April 1999 as Final Cut Pro, which won a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on August 21, 2002 for its impact on the television industry.

Ubillos also worked on Aperture, Final Cut Express, and iMovie at Apple. After 7 major releases of Final Cut Pro, Ubillos made a controversial decision to redesign the application from the ground up for Final Cut Pro X, which was released in 2011 with 64-bit support and background task abilities.

In April 2015, Ubillos retired from his position as chief architect of photo and video applications, with no plans to pursue another full-time job. In 2017, Ubillos received a Workflow Systems Medal from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.