Ross Barna
CEO and Chairman, RAB Lighting
I’m the CEO of RAB Lighting, an American manufacturer of LED lighting and controls for commercial, industrial and residential applications. RAB has been in business since 1946. I’ve run it since 2010.
About
Background
RAB makes LED lighting and controls for just about every kind of building, inside and out: offices, warehouses, schools, stores, apartment buildings, parking lots, and the controls that tie it all together. The goal is simple to say and hard to do: high-quality, affordable, well-designed, energy-efficient lighting that’s easy for distributors to sell, easy for electricians to install, and saves energy for the people who use it. We sell through electrical distributors, the supply houses contractors buy from, and not direct. That’s been the model since the beginning and it shapes most of what we do.
I became CEO in 2010 and Chairman in 2020. I’ve led the company through three major transitioned in that time. We converted the entire product line to LED. We moved into indoor lighting after decades as an outdoor company. And we built our own smart lighting system in-house, Lightcloud.
I’m a named inventor on 11 US patents in wireless lighting control. They came out of building Lightcloud and most of them cover how a building full of lights gets set up and managed without a specialist, which is the problem that kept us up at night when we started. I also product manage the majority of our product portfolio and am deeply involved in designing new Lighting Fixtures and bringing them to market.
The IES Progress Report is the Illuminating Engineering Society’s annual list of products it judges to be real advances in lighting. RAB had 14 products on it in 2024. In 2025 NAED, the trade association for electrical distributors, gave RAB its Industry Award of Merit, which recognizes a manufacturer’s support of the distribution channel. Given how we sell, that one means a lot to us.
A company our size also has duties beyond its products. Keep our environmental impact down. Create economic opportunity. Make sure everyone who makes and sells our products works in safe and fair conditions. We hold ourselves to those as seriously as we hold ourselves to a spec sheet.
I’m the fourth generation of my family to run the company. I live in New York City with my family.
At RAB
What we’re focused on
Everything here comes back to the same test: easier for distributors to sell, easier for electricians to install, more energy saved by the people who use the lights.
Connected lighting
Most buildings now have to control their lights: off when rooms are empty, dimmer when there’s daylight. We’re making that simple enough for any electrician to set up, without a specialist. That’s what Lightcloud is.
Controls
Field-adjustable products
Fixtures the installer adjusts on site instead of ordering one of many variations. Simpler for distributors to stock and for contractors to install.
Product strategy
Lower-impact fixtures
LEDs already cut the electricity. We’re working on the rest of the fixture: lighter, fewer materials, less waste.
Sustainability
Press
Interviews, awards, quotes
In conversation
Dec 2021
LightNOW · Craig DiLouie
RAB’s Ross Barna on field-adjustable lighting
In the next 3 to 5 years, I expect field-adjustable products to become the majority of what is sold in the market across nearly all categories.
Jun 2022
tED Magazine
LightFair 2022: the crowd, the products, the branding change
RAB’s commitment to sustainability goes well beyond the energy efficiency of our products. We are designing and redesigning our products to reduce our environmental impact by making them lighter, smaller, reducing and eliminating coatings, and using recycled, waste, and other low-impact materials.
Jan 2019
tED Magazine · Susan Bloom
My great-grandfather was a lamp salesman. Lamps are a part of my DNA.
Jul 2017
tED Magazine · Diane Duenez
State of the solid-state: RAB and Kichler execs weigh in
Price will continue to come down in terms of dollars per lumen, which will make it both easier to sell lighting and harder to keep competitive inventory.
Recognition
Jun 2025
NAED · tED Magazine
Dec 2024
Illuminating Engineering Society
Feb 2020
EdisonReport
Dec 2013
Quoted in
Apr 2015
Electrical Contractor
Jun 2014
tED Magazine
Apr 2014
Electrical Contractor
Nov 2012
Electrical Contractor
Sep 2011
Electrical Wholesaling
Patents
11 US grants
All assigned to RAB Lighting, all in wireless lighting control.
Commissioning and provisioning
- US 9,883,567Device indication and commissioning for a lighting control system 2018
- US 10,219,356Automated commissioning for lighting control systems 2019
- US 10,531,545Commissioning a configurable user control device 2020
- US D791,720Wireless lighting control system device, design 2017
Network architecture
- US 10,085,328Wireless lighting control systems and methods 2018
- US 10,743,394Two-layer lighting control network systems and methods 2020
- US 11,398,924Wireless lighting controller for a lighting control system 2022
- US 12,068,881Wireless lighting control system with independent site operation 2024
Monitoring
- US 11,722,332Wireless lighting controller with abnormal event detection 2023
Light quality
- US 10,820,396Illumination control systems and methods 2020
- US 12,075,543Circadian stimulus illumination control systems and methods 2024
Pending
- Filed 2022Heuristic configuration for commissioning a wireless lighting control system
- Filed 2024Commercial light fixtures using sustainable materials
Outside work
Depends on the season
When I’m not at RAB I’m usually outside. Surfing in the warmer months, mountain biking in the fall, snowboarding in the winter.
Surfing · Mountain biking · Snowboarding
Contact
Best on LinkedIn
ross [dot] barna [at] rablighting [dot] com