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News from PRINCETON UNIVERSITY For immediate release: Nov. 13, 2001 Contact: Marilyn Marks, 609-258-3601 Media advisory: Entrepreneurs to discuss experiences, challengesWho: Five entrepreneurs: Frank A. Bonsal Jr., founding partner, new Enterprise Associates; William F. Lewis, founder and CEO, Prospect Technologies; Adam H. Frankl, founder and former CEO, Resounding Technology; Stig Leschly, founder and CEO, Exchange.com; and Thomas C. Dixon, co-founder, JustATip.com. Harvard Business School Professor Bill Sahlman, an expert on entrepreneurship, also will speak. What: Forum on Entrepreneurship: Progress, Problems, Prospects, Policies When: Thursday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. Where: McCosh 10 on the Princeton University campus With the economy in recession, five Princeton alumni are returning to campus to discuss their experiences as entrepreneurs. This forum was prompted by student interest in a new course on "Entrepreneurship in America: The Changing Roles of Private and Public Enterprise," and is designed to increase awareness of this vital subject among students and others in the Princeton community. The forum will open with remarks by professor Sean Wilentz, director of the Program in American Studies, and by visiting professor Mahlon Apgar IV, who is teaching the entrepreneurship class. Biographies of participants: Mahlon Apgar IV, is visiting professor in the Program in American Studies and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and teaches about entrepreneurship. From 1998 to 2001, he was assistant secretary of the Army responsible for installations, logistics and environmental programs. Previously, he founded Apgar and Company, consultants on corporate infrastructure. As a principal of McKinsey and Company, he built a practice in Europe and the Middle East. He developed and patented a real estate evaluation system to help CEOs assess how corporate infrastructure affects strategy. He has edited two books, and his latest Harvard Business Review article on "The Alternative Workplace" discusses how innovations in technology and organizational practices enable the dispersion of work. Apgar holds a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and he researched British urban policy at Oxford University. Frank A. Bonsal Jr. is founding partner of New Enterprise Associates, a leading start-up investment firm in the U.S and a highly regarded venture capitalist with significant experience in helping start-up companies become successful. For more than 20 years, he has practiced classic venture capital by investing in early-stage companies and working with management to nurture and build companies of lasting value. He is a board member or limited partner of 13 early-stage firms. NEA has invested in more than 400 companies, of which some 130 have gone public and more than 150 have been successfully acquired. Prior to NEA, he was a general partner of Alex. Brown. Bonsal received a bachelor's degree in American studies and economics from Princeton. Thomas C. Dixon is co-founder of JustATip.com, a Web site that allows users to anonymously send compliments and criticisms by e-mail. He started the site from his Princeton dorm room in spring 2000 with student Sean MacIsaac and others, and developed content for it during the summer. He was involved in its sale and transfer to Traffix Inc., a direct marketing company, in April 2001. Since entering Princeton, he has worked part-time on a small software consulting company he co-founded with MacIsaac in 1999. Adam H. Frankl co-founded Resounding Technology in 1998. A classic Silicon Valley Internet start-up, the company raised substantial venture capital and grew rapidly. More than 2.5 million people now use their VOIP product Roger Wilco(tm). He sold the company to HearMe for $23 million. After completing Princeton Army ROTC, he served in the Army as an infantry captain. He joined his first start-up in 1990 as a product manager and opened the company's Japan operations. In 1995, he joined Rational Software as director of marketing. He is now part of another start-up, Addamark Technologies. Mr. Frankl holds a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Princeton. Stig Leschly was founder and CEO of Exchange.com from 1996 to 1999, when it was purchased for $200 million by Amazon.com. An early competitor of eBay, Exchange.com operated Internet marketplaces for hard-to-find products such as rare books and recordings. Its flagship marketplace, Bibliofind.com, integrated the inventories of 4,000 booksellers and offered access to 14 million book titles. He then worked in operations and strategic planning capacities for Amazon.com and founded the zShops business unit. Previously, he was a consultant with McKinsey and Company and an assistant principal of St. Mark's School in Harlem. He is now a lecturer at Harvard Business School, focusing on entrepreneurship and education reform. Mr. Leschly holds a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from Princeton and JD and MBA degrees from Harvard. William F. Lewis is president and CEO of Prospect Technologies, which uses advanced Internet and computer systems to provide e-business solutions to government and business. He is a technologist by training and a frequent speaker on the Internet and electronic commerce. He recently presented a tax plan to aid entrepreneurial firms to President Bush, and has testified before Congress on the valuation of high tech firms. Previously, he was responsible for Digital Equipment Corporation's government and commercial solutions businesses, established its distributed-logistics operation and co-founded its computer systems integration business. Lewis holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Princeton and a doctorate in mathematics and physics from Columbia University. He has taught at the University of London. William A. Sahlman is the Dimitri V. d'Arbeloff - Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. His research focuses on the investment and financing decisions in entrepreneurial ventures at all stages of development. His most recent article in the Harvard Business Review describes the positive role of entrepreneurship and the impact of Internet and other technologies on critical factors such as inflation and productivity. Sahlman received a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton, and an MBA and Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard. Sean Wilentz is the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History and director of the Program in American Studies at Princeton University. Wilentz is the author of "Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class 1788-1850" and, with Paul E. Johnson, " The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America." National honors include the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association and the Frederick Jackson Turner Award of the Organization of American Historians. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic and writes regularly for such national publications as The New Yorker and The New York Times Book Review. His current project is a major interpretive study, tentatively entitled "The Rise of American Democracy, 1787-1860." For additional information, please contact Judith Ferszt
at (609) 258-4710. |