Hank Risan (born February 13, 1955) is an American business executive, scientist, and creator of digital media rights and security patents.

For Dr. Gerhard Ringel, head of the Math department at UCSC, Risan worked on embeddings on orientable and non-orientable surfaces.

Risan concurrently attended Ph.D. programs at UCSC and the University of California, Berkeley (where he was Phi Beta Kappa) in mathematics and neurobiology.

Risan completed his Ph.D. dissertation at University of Cambridge, England and he attended graduate-level business courses at the London School of Economics.

[2] In 2001 Risan began filing domestic and foreign digital media and security patent applications, more than 20 of which have been allowed to date.

[17] During a 1999 appearance on National Public Radio's (NPR) "All Things Considered" program Risan played an arrangement of the Stephen Foster classic, "Old Susannah," on the Twain guitar.

Risan also owns an authenticated Maltese Falcon prop from the 1941 Warner Bros. film production directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart.