He was born in New Rochelle, New York to Hanneleis Feibelmann, a German-Jewish Holocaust survivor, and Jules Guggenheim, a Swiss-born businessman.
At Carnegie Mellon University, Guggenheim became one of the first students in Dietrich college to self-define a major in film,[1] and went on to create a documentary about the Robotics Institute in the School of Computer Science.
Creating the documentary exposed him to the 3D research at the time and fostered his interest in continuing on in his Masters at CMU in the School of Computer Science.
After his research lab at Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and renamed Pixar, Guggenheim continued to work in the world of graphics and animation.
Guggenheim, a respected founder of Pixar, eventually became Vice President of Feature Animation and co-produced Toy Story alongside Bonnie Arnold.