Venture capitalist to discuss intersection of markets, morality and policy with College scholars
GROVE CITY, Pa. – Grove City College’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and The Center for Vision & Values will co-host “Faith, Freedom and the Entrepreneur” on Wednesday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m., in Sticht Auditorium, Hall of Arts and Letters, on campus. The event is free and open to the public.
The lecture will feature a discussion between Dr. Craig Columbus, executive director of The Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship and associate professor of entrepreneurship; Dr. Paul Kengor, executive director of The Center for Vision & Values and professor of political science; and successful venture capitalist and talk-show host Glen Meakem, regarding the intersection of markets, morality and public policy.
Columbus is the co-author of the book God and Man on Wall Street: The Conscience of Capitalism. The book explores the ethics of financial reform and Federal Reserve monetary policy. A well-known financial executive and market strategist, Columbus has been a regular commentator on CNBC television for more than 15 years. Columbus received his J.D. from The University of Indiana School of Law, his M.B.A. from Penn State University and his B.A. from Loyola University.
Kengor is a New York Times best-selling author and a visiting fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. As a presidential historian known for his scholarship on the Cold War, Communism and Ronald Reagan, Kengor’s opinion editorials have appeared in the nation’s leading print and online publications, and he is a frequent commentator on top-rated radio and television news programs. Kengor received his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, his master’s degree from American University’s School of International Service, and he holds an honorary doctorate from Franciscan University.
Meakem is a successful technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist and conservative talk radio show host. His unique perspective has been shaped by his experiences as founder, chairman and CEO of the business-to-business internet success Freemarkets, Inc. – which he founded in 1995, took public in 1999 and sold to Ariba in 2004. In 2005, he co-founded Meakem Becker Venture Capital, a firm that invests in early stage technology companies. Meakem launched his radio program, Glen Meakem on the Weekend, in 2008. The program’s audience has grown rapidly over the past three years. He also served as an officer in the United States Army Reserve, volunteering and serving as a combat engineer platoon leader in the 1991 Gulf War. Meakem graduated A.B. cum laude from Harvard University in 1986 and later earned his M.B.A. from Harvard.
Wednesday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m., in Sticht Auditorium, Hall of Arts & Letters
Visionary Entrepreneur Speaker Series 2011-12
Previous speakers this year included:
Tom Freiling
Mr. Freiling will speak on Wednesday, February 15 @ 7:00 pm in Sticht Lecture Hall. His presentation is entitled, “About Our Father’s Business: Opportunities to Serve God as Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs.”
Tom Freiling is an accomplished, senior-level Internet marketing entrepreneur with broad based experience in digital publishing, new media, and fundraising with a focus on churches and consumers in the “faith and family” market. He founded two Internet companies with combined lifetime revenue exceeding $40 million dollars and serves as VP at Salem Communications (NASDAQ: SALM), the country’s leading Christian and conservative radio broadcaster and Internet communications company. He is the author of Walking With Lincoln: Spiritual Strength from America’s Favorite President and Reagan’s God and Country: A President’s Moral Compass.
Mr. Freiling and his wife reside in Fairfax, VA, with their four children. His oldest two children, Matthew ’15 and Nicholas ’13, are currently students at Grove City College.
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Sean Ammirati ’02
Mr. Ammirati will speak on Monday, September 26 @ 7:00 pm in Sticht Lecture Hall. His presentation is entitled, “High Growth Entrepreneurship.”
Sean Ammirati is the Chief Operating Officer at ReadWriteWeb and an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to becoming ReadWriteWeb’s COO, he was Co-Founder & CEO at SaaS startup mSpoke, which focused on semantic processing of content and recommendations. Sean led the company to an acquisition by LinkedIn – LinkedIn’s first acquisition. Prior to that, Mr. Ammirati was involved in a few other venture backed startups and was a Research Fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s Software Industry Center. He is particularly interested in technology and how it is changing media’s creation, optimization and delivery. Sean holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Grove City College.
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David W. Gill
Dr. Gill will speak on Tuesday, November 1 @ 7:00 pm in Sticht Lecture Hall. His presentation is entitled, “The Calling & Career King: Who Is It Going To Be?”
Dr. Gill, Mockler-Phillips Professor of Workplace Theology & Business Ethics and Director, Mockler Center for Faith & Ethics in the Workplace; Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, will give the strong biblical case for making Jesus Lord of our career choices and behavior, and underscore that by talking about how needy (and often receptive) our business world is for some help on ethics, values, leadership, the meaning and purpose of work.
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All VE lectures are free and open to campus and community. For more information about any of these speakers, or to register, please contact Mrs. Lynn Stillwaggon, Program Manager, The Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation @ 724-458-2003.
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