Kean Graduate Hugo Almeida Creates Scholarship for Future Business and Technology Leaders

August 28, 2026

A new scholarship established by Kean University alumnus Hugo Almeida '88 will provide $5,000 annually for three years to first-generation and non-traditional students pursuing bachelor's degrees in entrepreneurship or cybersecurity in Kean's College of Business and Public Management (CBPM).

Founder and CEO of the global technology company Abitronix, Almeida created the Almeida Barragán Foundation Scholarship to expand opportunities for Kean students while helping prepare the next generation of business and technology leaders.

Almeida has supported Kean in a variety of ways beyond the scholarship. In March, he organized the Abitronix Technology Expo 2026 on Kean's Union campus, connecting industry leaders with CBPM faculty and students while raising $15,000 for the University. He also serves on the college's advisory board and has lectured at its Dean's Forum.

For Almeida, the scholarship is rooted in his own experiences as a first-generation college student and the lessons he learned from his late father, whose work ethic shaped his life and career.

“In addition to experiencing the challenges of being a first-generation college student, I lost my father when I was 23,” Almeida said. “Now that I'm blessed to be able to financially give back, my hope is to save this generation the 10 years I lost trying to figure everything out for myself.”

Jin Wang, Ph.D., dean of Kean’s College of Business and Public Management, expressed appreciation for Almeida’s collaboration.

“We want our students to develop confidence, creativity and social responsibility,” Wang said. “Allowing them to benefit from the knowledge of a leader like Hugo Almeida, who exemplifies those traits, is one of the best ways we can prepare them to succeed.”

After graduating from Kean, Almeida rose to lead the Latin American sales division at Matsushita Electric Works, which prepared him to launch his own global trading and distribution company, Almeida Barragán International (ABI Group). In 1998, he created the ABItronix (tech division) within the ABI Group before officially spinning off the division into its own entity, Abitronix, LLC in 2002. Today, Abitronix serves clients in over 43 countries on six continents. Through the HEA Media Group, another one of his ventures, Almeida hosts two podcasts, T20E World and TechFluencer Talk.

“It's challenging and it's fun, because you’ve got to always be figuring out the puzzle,” Almeida said of his work matching companies with the services of more than 700 providers globally. He credits that network for keeping him up to date with the latest technology trends, knowledge he shares with advisory boards at Kean’s CBPM and the County College of Morris.

“The hardest aspect for universities today is keeping up with what's happening in the world of technology, especially AI,” he said. “They should be teaching what’s going to happen tomorrow, but it’s very difficult even for the universities to try to stay current on the fast-changing pace of different technologies.”

The child of Ecuadoran immigrants, Almeida grew up moving between Irvington and Union, New Jersey, and Quito, Ecuador. Always entrepreneurial-minded, he had planned to pursue a fine arts degree but instead chose a B.S. in industrial technology, with a specialization in design.

Today, Almeida is a husband, father and businessman who plans to share his wisdom in a book, ReView, ReThink and ReInvent, which will discuss the importance of staying nimble in an ever-shifting global environment.

“When you experience changes like my team did, from the dot-com era and 9/11 to the COVID-19 pandemic, you realize that you’ll continually get knocked down,” Almeida said. “To survive as an entrepreneur, you must be creative, committed and be able to embrace change very quickly.”

Doña Marie Marhoumy, a senior technology advisor at Abitronix, is impressed by Almeida.

“Hugo is truly an exceptional leader who seamlessly blends fierce business acumen with unwavering personal integrity,” she said. “His unique ability to innovate while deeply valuing human connection defines his legacy.”