To access recordings of past webinars, please visit: www.clubhub.hbs.org/nvc_webinar_recordings

Date/Time	Featured Speaker/Topic
December 15, 2011 10:30 - 11:30 am EST	Professor Shikhar Ghosh Topic: Success and Failure in Entrepreneurial Ventures

Description:
Shikhar Ghosh is the Mel Tukman Faculty Fellow, Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. He teaches The Entrepreneurial Manager (TEM) and has been a successful entrepreneur for the last 20 years. The founder and CEO or Chairman of eight technology-based entrepreneurial companies, Shikhar is the past Chairman of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MTLC) and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) - two leading entrepreneurial organizations.  He was selected by Business Week as one of the best Entrepreneurs in the US, Forbes as one of the ‘Masters of the Internet Universe’ and Fortune as the CEO of one of the 10 most innovative companies in the US. Companies he founded were selected as both the ‘hottest’ and ‘coolest’ emerging companies by numerous business publications.

Shikhar joined the Boston Consulting Group after receiving his MBA from HBS in 1980.  At BCG, he particularly focused on innovation in large organizations.  He was elected a worldwide partner of the firm in 1987.  Shikhar left BCG in 1988 to become CEO of Appex, an early-stage venture backed company that built the inter-carrier infrastructure for the US mobile phone industry.  Appex provided centralized services that enabled independent mobile carriers to operate as a single seamless network.  Appex was bought by EDS in 1990.  By the time Shikhar left in 1993, Appex’s revenues exceeded $100m, with an order backlog of over $1 billion, and was selected by Business Week as the fastest growing private company in the US.

Shikhar then founded Open Market in 1993.  Open Market was one of the pioneering companies in the commercialization of the Internet. It built the first commercial infrastructure for enabling secure commerce and provided the software and services that enabled companies like Time Warner and AT&T to offer their services on the Internet.  Open Market was one of the first internet companies to go public and  was selected by numerous business publications as one of the companies that helped to make the Internet what it is today. 

Since leaving open Market, Shikhar has been the founder, CEO or Chairman of several companies in the wireless, payment, Internet marketing, and on-line retailing industries. He has worked in all facets of the entrepreneurial process – starting companies with technical teams, providing and raising capital with venture capitalists, buying and selling companies, or taking them public and closing down unsuccessful companies. His ideas and visionary perspective also make him a regular keynote speaker at numerous conferences on innovation, entrepreneurship, digital media and the future of the Internet.

For more info on the Alumni New Venture Contest, please visit www.alumni.hbs.edu/nvc