Michael T. Strickland graduated from UT in 1977 with a degree in general business. He also attended the College of Law and all but earned the JD degree. Strickland is founder and owner of Bandit Lites, known as the “Rolls Royce of entertainment lighting.” Bandit Lites has received dozens of national and international lighting industry awards. It also has received countless accolades for business and civic leadership and for being an outstanding employer.
Bandit Lites serves the world’s most famous music and performance artists from its offices in Knoxville, Nashville, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Strickland started Bandit Lites in 1968, at the age of 12, in his hometown of Kingsport. He moved the company to Knoxville in 1973, when he entered UT, and operated the company from his dormitory room. He remained in Knoxville after graduation to direct the company’s global expansion. It’s first office outside Knoxville was opened in 1982 in Nashville. The company now employs five hundred people worldwide. The company not only lights shows but also provides lighting for film and for television shows.
Named CNN-USA Today Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999, Strickland has founded several nonprofit and for-profit organizations in the area of entertainment and has numerous lighting patents and inventions to his credit. Strickland explains that the company is called “Bandit” Lites because the lights were originally taken from the theatre to the rock show. Strickland received the College of Business’s Distinguished Alumnus award in 2009 and was named to the UT Development Council the same year.