Meet Our Honorary Member

The IESNYC spotlights a member each month whose volunteerism, perspective or personal story helps advance our goals, piques our curiosity, and makes the IESNYC become a more vibrant and diverse lighting community. We value their expertise and thank them for volunteering their time and energy for the betterment of the section and NYC Lighting Community. #the_iesnycmom

October 2026

A.J. Hetzke
Owner and Founder, IlluminFx Lighting Systems
Northeast Regional Director, Illuminating Engineering Society

Q: How did you first get started in the lighting industry?
I joined my father in our family business during and then right out of college. Unitrac was a design-build energy management company targeting small- to medium-size commercial buildings. We took on a lighting product in 1986, and I focused on that. I started college as a music performance major and finished with a BS in management. I knew nothing about lighting and had zero experience. 
 
We were moderately successful selling the energy saving lighting products until electronic ballasts and T8 lamps were introduced, rendering us obsolete. There’s more to the story, but ultimately I got us selling the new technologies. At that time, I promised myself to learn everything I could about lighting and the lighting industry. And I never wanted to be caught behind on technology again.
 
I was fortunate enough to be working with Kodak, and some of those people invited me to an IES event. I joined IES and began getting involved in my local section (Rochester), as well as attending Lightfair and every lighting class or seminar I could find. That’s been my practice over the past 35 years.
 
In the early 1990s we got involved with fiberoptic lighting, and in 1995 I lit my house and landscape with fiberoptic lighting. It was likely one of the first houses in North America to have color changing lighting capabilities. (Go ahead and prove me wrong!) It still works.

That excited my focus on landscape lighting and ultimately led to me to develop a patented fiberoptic lighting system for ponds and waterfalls. I founded IlluminFx to make those systems. In 2006 I began travelling overseas to see what the rest of the world was doing with lighting and have since developed a solid supply chain network and significantly expanded our product offerings.   

Q: How did you first get involved in the IESNYC?
I attended the Lumen Awards a few years ago when I was District Chair, and I was blown away!  For someone from a section that struggles to get any award submissions at all, it was quite a contrast in terms of the scale of the event and the caliber of the award recipients. I am proud to represent the voices of the entire Northeast Region (including impactful programming from the Boston, Toronto, and Philadelphia sections) on the IES Board of Directors.

Q: How do you see your role as a member of the IESNYC?
I’m delighted to be given this honor and will assist and contribute in any way possible. I have met with the IESNYC Board of Managers and encourage all IESNYC members to bring their influence further onto the global stage by participating in IES standards, education, and other activities. I will continue to look for ways the Section and the Society can best listen to and reinforce one another.

Q: In your opinion, what are the best assets of the IESNYC?
Critical mass. Whether or not anyone outside the city wants to admit it, NYC is the center of the universe for many things, including the lighting industry. (My wife is originally from Brooklyn, and her family lets me know this every chance they get.)

In my experience, people from NYC are very direct. New Yorkers never "beat around the bush," which can be shocking to many outsiders. At the same time, a New Yorker is the first one to welcome you and then give you the shirt off their back.

With the sheer size of the lighting community in New York City, the IESNYC has more industry influence than 80% of the other sections put together. IESNYC’s resources – financial, human, and institutional – are regularly used for the greater good. The Lighting Conference’s Emerging Professionals Day and the Richard Kelly Grant are two great examples. 

The IESNYC helps the Society at-large (and therefore other sections) by benchmarking programs, structures, practices, etc. The IESNYC’s influence sets it apart. It's exciting to see this dynamic play out at events like the recent Leadership Forum. I watched IESNYC President  Zachary Pearson share information on the Section’s NextGen program with section leaders from around the world. Many caught some of his enthusiasm and will take your Section’s efforts and experience back to their home sections.

Editor's Note: The IESNYC appreciates the volunteerism and contributions of A.J. Hetzke as we bestow this Honorary Member of Month.