Richard Day

Polytechnic Alumni Association - International Board of Directors

(Term ending August 31, 2025)

Richard started his journey in entrepreneurship when he joined NYU Tandon’s School of Engineering. He completed his Bachelor’s in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering while taking classes like programming, 3D modeling, sustainability, and creative writing. Richard chose to attend NYU Tandon (then NYU-Poly) when he learned of the school’s growing efforts to foster student entrepreneurship. During his undergraduate years, he not only watched but immersed himself in the evolution of NYU‘s entrepreneurial community.

Richard has always been working on different projects, and in 2016 he eventually co-founded Aquaneers, a cleantech company that was funded by the Department of Energy to use nanotechnology for desalination and the conversion of carbon emissions into clean fossil fuel alternatives. Richard also co-founded a creative studio, Anoba Studios, which is not only an outlet for producing creative works but ultimately a vehicle to create and fund initiatives that support the creative endeavors of underrepresented content creators.

Finishing his time with Aquaneers, Richard recently began devoting his workdays to being a Senior Product Developer at National Grid, where he utilizes his entrepreneur mentality to help create and drive new energy efficiency programs, with a particular focus around low-income and financially starved communities. Improving the lives of his community is Richard’s ultimate goal and the main reason for most of his entrepreneurial endeavors.

Aside from his creative studio and role at National Grid, he is part of many community groups. He is a member of the PAA Board of Directors at Tandon, working on initiatives that support incoming student diversity. Similarly, he serves as an executive member of NextGen, the young professionals’ committee of the Student Leadership Network, an organization that supports the college dreams of thousands of NYC students in low-income communities. He is also very active as an alumni committee member of the Pierre Toussaint Scholarship Program, which gives guidance and support to underserved college students in America and high school students in Haiti, his family’s country of origin.