to page content
to site navigation
The Foundation's primary site.
Global news, events, and resources.
The national learning program for entrepreneurs.
A new approach to developing the next generation of high-growth firms.
Access to university research and innovation.
The Kauffman Foundation's charter school serving Kansas City.
Encouraging the aspirations of young people.
The platform for business plan competitions.
College preparation and access for urban youth in Kansas City.
A guide to Kauffman Foundation and partner resources, for aspiring entrepreneurs.
News and announcements from the Foundation.
From our vice president of Entrepreneurship.
From our vice president of Advancing Innovation.
News from Global Entrepreneurship Week
News about this education program for entrepreneurs.
Tweets for the eMed Community at Entrepreneurship.org
News from the Kauffman Labs program.
From our business plan competition service.
Contribute to the community seeking to improve entrepreneurship and innovation measurement.
A look at entrepreneurship from the Kauffman Foundation's Thom Ruhe.
Tracks research and policies that are accelerating economic growth and changing the world.
Brings to light various policies and initiatives to advance innovation and drive economic growth.
A selection of our videos
Take our video and audio with you.
Explore many of our publications.
Join the discussion on our LinkedIn site.
Join us on Google's social service.
The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
Mr. Gifford leads The Foundry in all of its activities, including the identification and early development of new technologies, the formation, staffing and growth of new companies, and serving as a board member of the new ventures. Most recently, Mr. Gifford was Vice President of Research and Development at Heartport, Inc.. From 1993-1998, he built and led a 62-person team developing a wide variety of novel devices and procedures for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery that were instrumental in the company's enormously successful public offering in 1996. Heartport's market capitalization at its peak in 1996 reached over $1 billion. In 1992, Mr. Gifford and Professor Dr. Berthold Hoefling co-founded Bavaria Medizin Technologie (BMT), GmbH, to develop innovative drug delivery catheters and to establish a German source for innovation and production of catheters for Interventional Cardiology. During the two-year period following the founding of this business, he served in the role of Managing Director of BMT until such time as he transitioned management of the company to a German national. In 1990, Mr. Gifford and John B. Simpson, MD, Ph.D., founded Cardiovascular Therapeutic Technologies, Inc., a business devoted to the development of innovative local drug delivery catheters for thrombolytic and antiproliferative agents. Eli Lilly and Company acquired this business for its technology in 1991, and it became the original basis for Guidant's Compass organization. From 1985-1990, Mr. Gifford worked at Devices for Vascular Intervention (DVI), where he was the driving force behind the design of the company's first generation Peripheral and Coronary atherectomy systems. In addition, during this period he served in various Clinical Research and Marketing capacities. Before joining DVI, Hanson worked in an engineering role at Oximetrix, Inc., working in the field of intravascular blood gas monitoring
Robert I. Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, where he is Co-Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization, an active researcher and cofounder in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, an IDEO Fellow and an Honorary PeopleSoft Fellow. Sutton is also a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Teaching and Learning. Sutton received his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from The University of Michigan and has served on the Stanford faculty since 1983. He has also taught at the Haas Business School and was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences during the 1986-87, 1994-95, and 2002-03 academic years. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous scholarly publications, and as an editor for the Administrative Science Quarterly and Research in Organizational Behavior. Sutton's honors include the award for the best paper published in the Academy of Management Journal, induction into the Academy of Management Journals Hall of Fame, the Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching, the McGraw-Hill Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award, the McCullough Faculty Scholar Chair from Stanford, and selection by Business 2.0 as a leading "management guru" in 2002. Sutton studies the links between managerial knowledge and organizational action, innovation, and organizational performance. He as published over 90 articles and chapters in scholarly and applied publications. He has also published seven books and edited volumes. His research and opinions are often described in the press and he is also currently writing a bi-monthly column for CIO Insight on organizational behavior. Sutton has been a guest on numerous radio and television shows.
Guy Kawasaki is a founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures. Prior to this position, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. and sits on the board of BitPass Inc. A noted speaker and the founder of various personal computer companies, Guy was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer. He is also the author of eight books including Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Guy holds a B.A. from Stanford University and a M.B.A. from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Before co-founding Fluidigm, as Mycometrix, Mr. Worthington held a variety of engineering, operations and marketing positions at Actel Corporation, which designs, develops and markets field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and associated design and development software and programming hardware. Mr. Worthington served in several departments during his tenure at Actel, including product engineering, R&D engineering management, program management, product planning, and strategic marketing. His last position at Actel was Director, Strategic Marketing and Product Planning. Mr. Worthington received his undergraduate degree in Physics and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Randy Komisar joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers in 2005 as a partner. For several years prior Randy has partnered with entrepreneurs creating businesses with leading edge technologies. He was a co-founder of Claris Corporation, served as CEO for LucasArts Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics, and acted as a "virtual CEO" for such companies as WebTV, Mirra and GlobalGiving. He was a founding Director of TiVo where he is currently chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee. Earlier Randy served as CFO of GO Corporation and Senior Counsel for Apple Computer, following a private practice in Technology Law. Randy holds a BA in Economics from Brown University and a JD form Harvard Law School. He is a Consulting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Stanford University and author of the best-selling book The Monk and the Riddle, as well as several articles on leadership and entrepreneurship. Randy frequently speaks here and abroad on such topics.
Dr. John Hennessy has been President of Stanford University since 2000. He became a Stanford faculty member in 1977. He rose through the academic ranks to full professorship in 1986 and was the inaugural Willard R. and Inez Kerr Bell Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 1987 to 2004. A pioneer in computer architecture, in 1981 Dr. Hennessy drew together researchers to focus on a computer architecture known as RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), a technology that has revolutionized the computer industry by increasing performance while reducing costs. In 1984, he used his sabbatical year to found MIPS Computer Systems Inc. to commercialize his research in RISC processors. Dr. Hennessy is a recipient of the 2000 IEEE John von Neumann Medal, a 2004 NEC C&C Prize for lifetime achievement in computer science and engineering, and a 2005 Founders Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Hennessy earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University and his master's and doctoral degrees in computer science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Fern Mandelbaum, is a Partner at Monitor Venture Partners. Ms. Mandelbaum is an entrepreneur and CEO who specializes in creating and growing technology focused businesses. Since 1998, Ms. Mandelbaum has worked with CEO's helping them develop and refine their business concepts, recruit management teams, key advisors and board members, implement fund raising strategies and establish strategic alliances. Her portfolio includes: New Vine Logistics, CaseCentral, Informative, NapaStyle, WetFeet, Care2, and LiveAdvice (merged with Keen). She has worked with, and secured funding for her companies from many of the leading venture capital firms, including: Mohr Davidow; ATV; Kleiner-Perkins; Draper Fisher Jurvetson; ThomVest; and Carlyle Ventures. Between 1991 and 1998, Ms. Mandelbaum was co-founder and CEO of Skyline Products, one of the premier toy invention firms that was sold to IDEO Product Development, the largest design firm in the U.S., in 1998. Skyline achieved annual growth in excess of 200%, becoming one of the top toy invention firms in the U.S. She was responsible for all marketing, business development, financial, legal, and strategic planning aspects of the company, and licensed over 80 products to 50 companies during her tenure. Between 1988 and 1991, Ms. Mandelbaum was a General Manager at Metcal. She created and managed a division to develop and commercialize foodservice equipment incorporating Metcal's proprietary heating technology. Prior to, and while, attending business school, Ms. Mandelbaum worked at Bain and Company, SRI International as a research analyst in the financial industries center, Hewlett Packard, creating the used equipment vendor program, and the Kyoto Shinyo Kinko, managing the initial stages of a new product introduction. Ms. Mandelbaum received her M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1988 and her B.A. in Economics from Brown University in 19
David M. Kelley is a California-based entrepreneur, educator, engineer, and venture capitalist. He was featured by Fortune magazine as one of the "People to Watch" and was selected for the "I.D. 40" list of America's leading design innovators. In that listing he was described as "the most sought-after design engineer this side of Thomas Edison." He is the founder and CEO of IDEO Product Development, America's largest independent product design and development firm. In addition to his work at IDEO Product Development, Kelley is a tenured professor at Stanford University in the school's innovative Product Design program. As a faculty member, Professor Kelley is interested in new product development methodology from inception to production with an emphasis on user-centered design. He encourages broad understanding of product design methodologies, exposing his students to a variety of viewpoints in classroom discussions and project work. Professor Kelley's primary involvement is in the product design program, a joint program with the art department which emphasizes the blending of innovation, human values, and aesthetic concerns into a single curriculum. He also teaches in the Human Computer Interface program, which is a joint program with computer science.
Frank H. Levinson founded Finisar in April 1987 and has served as a member of our Board of Directors since February 1988 and as our Chairman of the Board and Chief Technical Officer since August 1999. Mr. Levinson also served as our Chief Executive Officer from February 1988 to August 1999. From September 1980 to December 1983, Mr. Levinson was a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. From January 1984 to July 1984, he was a Member of Technical Staff at Bellcore, a provider of services and products to the communications industry. From April 1985 to December 1985, Mr. Levinson was the principal optical scientist at Raychem Corporation, and from January 1986 to February 1988, he was Optical Department Manager at Raynet, Inc., a fiber optic systems company. Mr. Levinson holds a B.S. in Mathematics/Physics from Butler University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Virginia.
John G. Melo is the Chief Executive Officer of Amyris Biotechnologies, a synthetic biology company working to reduce the cost of curing malaria and producing lower carbon, second generation bio-fuels. He was previously president of U.S. Fuels for BP, where he led one of the world's largest petroleum marketing, logistics, and trading businesses. While in this role he successfully grew revenues from $25 billion to $34 billion and increased net cash by $1 billion. During this time his team developed one of the world's most successful ethanol blending and marketing businesses. He also worked on the development of BP's "Helios" re-branding. Prior to his eight years with BP, Mr. Melo was a director with Ernst & Young in San Jose, California, and a management team member for several Northern California start-ups, including Computer Aided Services and Alldata Corporation. John serves on the Board of Directors for U.S. Oil, a $1.6 billion energy company, and Cilion, a leading low-cost ethanol manufacturer. John is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, The Chicago Club, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and YPO. He enjoys visiting his home country of Azores, Portugal, as well as skiing, biking, tennis, golf, and time with his children.
Want to get connected? Sign up to receive regular news, polls and updates from The Kauffman Foundation.
