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.
Focused on the entrepreneurial world As the designated video channel for entrepreneurship, the e360TV Channel features content focused on important topics that are impacting the world of entrepreneurship as we know it.
David Rothkopf is the President and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory firm specializing in emerging market investment and risk management services. A major focus of Garten Rothkopf's work is on new trends in Asia and Latin America, and the growth of alternative energy. Previously, Rothkopf was Founder, Chairman and CEO of Intellibridge, a firm offering open-source intelligence and advisory services on international issues, after serving for two years as Managing Director of Kissinger Associates. Rothkopf also served as a Senior Trade Official in the Clinton Administration. In this capacity, he played a central role in developing and directing the Administration's groundbreaking Big Emerging Markets Initiative. A prolific writer, David Rothkopf is the author of more than 150 articles on international themes for publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, and others. Among his more popular publications are Running the World: The Inside Story of the NSC and the Architects of American Power, and his most recent book, Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, which examines the power of global elites and how they are shaping globalization.
Dr. Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, which awarded the $10,000,000 Ansari X PRIZE for private spaceflight. Diamandis is focused on building the X PRIZE Foundation into a world-class prize institute. The X PRIZE is now developing X PRIZEs in Genomics, Automotive, Education, Medicine, Energy, and Social fields. He is also an international leader in the commercial space arena, having founded and run many of the sector's leading entrepreneurial companies. Diamandis serves as the CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation, a commercial space company developing private, FAA-certified parabolic flights utilizing Boeing 727-200 aircraft. In addition, he is the chairman and co-founder of the Rocket Racing League. Diamandis is a co-founder and director of Space Adventures, the company that brokered the launches of four private citizens to the International Space Station. In 1987, Diamandis co-founded the International Space University (ISU), where he served as the University's first managing director. Today he is a trustee of the $30M ISU, based in Strasbourg, France. Prior to ISU, Diamandis was chairman of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), an organization he founded while earning his undergraduate degree in molecular genetics and graduate degree in aerospace engineering at MIT in 1980. SEDS is the world's largest student pro-space organization. After MIT he attended Harvard Medical School, where he received his M.D. In 2005 he has was also awarded an honorary Doctorate from the International Space University. Diamandis is the winner of the 2007 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Innovation, the 2006 (inaugural) Heinlein Award, the 2006 Lindbergh Award, the 2006 Wired RAVE Award, the 2006 Neil Armstrong Award for Aerospace Achievement and Leadership, the Konstantine Tsiolkovsky Award, twice the winner of the Aviation & Space Technology Laurel, and the 2003 Worl
Jeffrey Housenbold is President & CEO of Shutterfly, Inc., an internet-based social expression and personal publishing service. Shutterfly provides a full range of products and services that enable consumers to manage their digital photographs. Housenbold has a successful track record of building online consumer franchises by combining commerce and community. In June 2006, he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Retail and Consumer Products category for the Northern California region. Previously, Housenbold was Vice President of Business Development & Internet Marketing at eBay, where he managed customer acquisition and retention. At eBay he also held positions as Vice President & General Manager of its Business-to-Consumer Group and Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions. Formerly, he held senior management positions with AltaVista, including Vice President & General Manager, and was the Chief Operating Officer of Raging Bull, the community finance portal. He also served as Vice President of Corporate Development at WinStar Communications and as Manager and Founder of Accenture's Media & Entertainment Strategy Group. Housenbold completed his undergraduate degree with High Honors at Carnegie Mellon University in Economics and Business Administration and was also a Presidential Scholar. He went on to earn his MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Dean's Fellow. Housenbold is the co-author of The Shutterfly Guide to Great Digital Photos, an instructional book published by McGraw-Hill on the essentials of digital photography and managing images. He is an avid photographer with his Canon 30D.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Juniper Networks since 1996, Scott Kriens built and led the team from its early days of product development to its current broad commercial success. Prior to joining Juniper Networks, Scott was a co-founder and officer of StrataCom, Inc., in both operations and sales capacities from 1986 to 1996. He also serves as a Director of VeriSign, Inc. and Equinix, Inc. Kriens holds a B.A. degree in Economics from California State University, Hayward.
As General Manager of Electronic Arts Redwood Shores Studio, Nick Earl is responsible for the management of EA's Redwood Shores and Maxis studio operations. This includes overseeing programming, artwork, audio, research and development, quality assurance and strategy for top EA GAMES franchises as well as EA SPORTS franchises including: The Godfather, The Lord of The Rings, James Bond, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, and the highly- acclaimed Sims franchise, as well as new titles under development. Prior to his current position, Nick was Chief Operating Officer of the Redwood Shores Studio, responsible for day-to-day operations of the studio at corporate headquarters. Among other games, Nick produced the first Army Men games on PC and PlayStation. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Chris Larsen is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Prosper. For over a decade Chris Larsen has focused on using the Internet to make consumer lending more efficient, fair, honest, open, and trustworthy. Prior to Prosper, Mr. Larsen co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-LOAN. Under Mr. Larsen's leadership, E-LOAN closed over $27 billion in consumer loans, and was consistently ranked as one of the nation's most trusted consumer brands. E-LOAN earned consumers' trust by taking radically pro-consumer actions such as being the first company to provide consumers with access to their credit scores, and playing a critical role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation. Mr. Larsen led E-LOAN through a successful IPO in 1999, and oversaw the company's acquisition by Popular, Inc. in 2005. Mr. Larsen holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.
Joe McCracken is Vice President of Business Development at Genentech, Inc. In this role, McCracken is responsible for all business development activities at the company, including the identification and negotiation of collaboration and licensing agreements with academic institutions, biotechnology companies and pharmaceutical companies throughout the world. After a seven-year absence, McCracken rejoined Genentech in 2000 as Vice President of Business Development. During his earlier time with Genentech, McCracken served in many capacities, culminating in positions as Director of Business Development and Representative Director of Genentech Ltd., Genentech's wholly owned subsidiary in Japan. McCracken has more than 19 years of experience in technical, business development and market development roles with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He has also served as Vice President of Technology Licensing and Alliances at Aventis, and Vice President of Worldwide Business and Technology Development at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer S.A.
Rick Wallace was appointed chief executive officer of KLA-Tencor Corporation on January 1, 2006. Wallace brings 17 years of experience at KLA-Tencor to his current role, and has held a variety of senior management positions at KLA-Tencor. These include president and chief operating officer, executive vice president, overseeing the company's Reticle and Photomask Inspection Division, Films and Surface Technology Division, CTO Software and Customer Groups, and executive vice president of KLA-Tencor's Wafer Inspection Group. He also served at KLA-Tencor as group vice president for the Lithography Control Group, as well as vice president/general manager and vice president of marketing for the Wafer Inspection Division. He joined KLA-Tencor in 1988 as an applications engineer.
Gil Penchina recently agreed to become CEO of Wikia, a start-up founded by Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia. Wikia is a community site built on open-source software that allows anyone to contribute to guides on subjects as diverse as star trek, pet diabetes and travel guides. Wikia operates under the GFDL Free content license and is positioned to become the first sustainable business built around the vision of free content. Prior to Wikia, Mr. Penchina was an 8-year veteran of eBay. Mr. Penchina worked in Europe, directing eBay's presence in Southern Europe, and oversaw the company's expansion efforts in Eastern Europe. Previously he was responsible for launching sites in Hong Kong and Singapore, and for the company's entry into India. Mr. Penchina also played a role in eBay's entry into South Korea and China. Mr. Penchina came to eBay in 1998, first working in business development and then running the mergers and acquisitions department. In 2001 he was named vice president of business development where he built business and marketing relationships for eBay with a number of the top brands in the U.S.A including Microsoft, AOL, Disney and Yahoo. Mr. Penchina began his career at General Electric in 1991, first in manufacturing and later in marketing on GE's corporate staff. He has worked as a management consultant at Bain & Co and an Internet entrepreneur, creating a content, commerce and community vertical for business travelers. An active angel investor, he has investments or advisory roles with many internet startups including: Linkedin, Flock, Wink, Vamoose, Become, Feedster, Koders, Voicestar, Reify and Betzip. A native of Amherst, Massachusetts, he holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business. Courtesy of Wikia
An international expert in agricultural biotechnology and biopesticide science and business, Pam Marrone, Ph.D., is founder and former Chairman/CEO of AgraQuest Inc. which she established in Davis, CA in 1995. She recently left AgraQuest to start Marrone Organic Innovations, Inc. which is focused on finding solutions to unmet market needs, especially weed control for organic farmers. AgraQuest researches, develops and markets environmentally friendly, natural products for farm, home and public health pest management. Marrone's interest in this area began as a child, blossomed into a Ph.D. in entomology, and took flight in 1983 when she became head of the Insect Biology group for Monsanto Agricultural Co. In 1990, Marrone became president of Entotech, a Davis-based biopesticide subsidiary of Danish company Novo Nordisk. She launched AgraQuest after Entotech was sold to Abbott Laboratories. AgraQuest discovered Serenade, for controlling diseases of fruits and vegetables, and began selling the biofungicide in late 2000. Marrone and AgraQuest won the 2003 Presidential Green Chemistry award (small business) for the discovery and commercialization of Serenade and a 2004 Red Herring Top 100 company award. The company also has several other products either in development or on the market. Marrone has raised more than $50 million through private equity investments to fund AgraQuest's operations. Amid the post-September 11 stock market sell-off, Marrone postponed the company's initial public offering until the window opens again for new biotech investments. Marrone received a BS in entomology from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. Courtesy of Hoover Institution
Want to get connected? Sign up to receive regular news, polls and updates from The Kauffman Foundation.
