Kamran Elahian Speaks about Celebration of Failure
January 12, 2012, Washington, D.C. – Venture Capitalist, global entrepreneur and philanthropist, Kamran Elahian was born in 1954, Tehran and immigrated to the U.S. in 1972. He received his BS in computer science, BS in mathematics, and ME in computer graphics from the University of Utah by the age of 22. In addition, Mr. Elahian studied Integrated Circuit (chip) design at Stanford University’s Honors Program while working as a design automation software engineer at Hewlett Packard. As an entrepreneur, Mr. Elahian co-founded ten companies, three of them failed (e.g. Momenta), six of them produced a total market cap of over $8B (e.g. Cirrus Logic) and one is slated for IPO next year.
As a VC, Mr. Elahian co-founded Global Catalyst Partners with investments in the U.S., Japan, China, India and Israel. Underlying Mr. Elahian’s global vision is the conviction that modern Information Technology (IT) can be instrumental in dissolving barriers between nations. This vision is reflected in Schools-Online, a nonprofit he founded in 1996 to connect the world, one school at a time (6400 schools in 36 countries by 2003) – the mission of Schools-Online was to ensure that every child in every school has effective access to the communication and information resources of the Internet; Global Catalyst Foundation, co-founded in 2000 to improve lives through the effective application of IT, and UN-GAID, a United Nations global forum that promotes ICT in developing countries where Mr. Elahian serves as Co-Chairman. Inspired by the radical revolutionary Che Guevara and the indomitable, peace-loving Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Elahian has developed his own brand of philanthropy; one that makes the most of modern technological innovations, such as the Internet, to bridge the social and political differences among people.
The Passing the Torch of Success will be held on Sunday, January 29, 2012 from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. at Mandeville Auditorium of UC San Diego. Tickets (general $30 and student with ID $15) can be purchased at www.sandiegoptt.com or by calling (858) 775-1604. For more information, contact SDChapter@Paaia.org.
