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Steve Blank Appointed Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship

New York, NY (November 2, 2015) —The Office of the President and Columbia Entrepreneurship announced today that Steve Blank, a pioneer in teaching aspiring entrepreneurs about innovation and the creation of startups, has been appointed a Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship.

Blank is credited with revolutionizing how startups are built and how entrepreneurship is taught around the globe. A retired eight-time serial entrepreneur turned educator and author, Blank launched the Lean Startup movement, described in a May 2013 Harvard Business Review piece, Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything. Blank is a prolific writer and author of the bestselling books, The Startup Owner’s Manual (K&S Ranch, 2012), and The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win (K&S Ranch, 2013). His Lean LaunchPad course, taught at Columbia, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, has redefined entrepreneurship instruction; and his Innovation Corps class for the National Science Foundation has changed how the United States commercializes science research.

As the University’s inaugural Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship, Blank will join with Columbia Entrepreneurship in working with faculty, students and administrative leaders of the University’s diverse programs in entrepreneurship, innovation and design. His expertise and unique skills will be deployed across the University as Columbia enhances the resources available to the University’s vibrant innovation ecosystems.

“For Columbia to fulfill its mission of explaining and responding to society’s challenges, we must be dedicated not only to developing new knowledge, but also to seeing that our scholarship has a meaningful impact in the world,” said Columbia University President Lee Bollinger. “This requires precisely the expertise and insight that Steve Blank brings to our University community. His pioneering work in teaching entrepreneurship will strengthen the innovation and design programming we are developing, and we look forward to his contributions.”

The fellowship builds on Blank’s established relationship with Columbia. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, where he has taught his Lean Launchpad Course since 2012. Blank has hosted several University events, including talks on the Secret History of Silicon Valley, the Inflection Point: When LeanLaunch Methodologies Take Hold, and a talk on Corporate Innovation in January 2015 with Columbia Business School Professor Sheena S. Iyengar.

Richard Witten,’75CC, the Founder of Columbia Entrepreneurship, Special Advisor to President Bollinger, and a University Trustee Vice-Chair Emeritus, noted that, “In the world of entrepreneurship education and organizational innovation, Steve Blank stands out as one of our nation’s great thought leaders and agents of change.  We are thrilled that Steve will be working with us to apply many of these great skills within the Columbia University community.”

Media contact: Beth Kwon, 212-854-6581, byk2102@columbia.edu

About Columbia Entrepreneurship
Columbia Entrepreneurship was established in 2013 at the direction of Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger and the University Trustees to support, invigorate, and accelerate Columbia’s programs and culture around innovation, creativity, design and entrepreneurship. Visit entrepreneurship.columbia.edu to learn more.

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