Newswise — Venture capital and entrepreneurship luminary Vinod Khosla will receive the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business tomorrow, September 9, 2009.
Khosla was selected for his accomplishments as a pioneering entrepreneur and investor in computers, semiconductors, telecommunications, and more recently, in sustainable technology.
Khosla will speak before the Haas community on “The Innovation Ecosystem and Its Role in Shaping Our Renewable Future” in the Andersen Auditorium at the Haas School of Business on September 9 at 7:30 p.m., following a private awards ceremony and reception hosted in his honor.
Each year the Lester Center recognizes an individual that exemplifies the best attributes of entrepreneurship: the pursuit of excellence through innovation. The award honors business leaders whose efforts benefit the broader community and who reflect the highest standards of business and public citizenship.
“Vinod Khosla has a genius for accurately predicting how industries will be changed by new technology.
A self-described pragmatist, his courageous entrepreneurial and investing strategies have challenged and changed a generation,” said Jerome Engel, co-faculty director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. “Khosla’s accomplishments shine as beacons of innovation and social conscience and are an inspiration to our students.”
Khosla was the founding chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems. Prior to that he co-founded electronic design automation company Daisy Systems. He also helped start Juniper Networks.
Khosla became a full-time investor in 1986, joining John Doerr at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In 2004 he formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures to focus on emerging technologies and very early stage ventures. He sometimes funds what he refers to as “science experiments" and invests in both for-profit and social ventures. Khosla Ventures, based in Menlo Park, California, is today one of the most visible investors in clean tech. The firm also invests in mobile technology, new markets, or contrarian approaches to existing markets.
Khosla holds a bachelor’s degree of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India; a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University; and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Recent past recipients of the Lester Center's Lifetime Achievement Award include John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation; Richard Kramlich, co-founder and general partner of early Silicon Valley venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates; and Warren Hellman, chairman and co-founder of Hellman & Friedman, LLC, a private equity investment firm based in San Francisco.
Representatives of the news media are welcome to attend the talk free of charge. Please RSVP to Ute Frey at the Haas School at 510-642-0342 or at [email protected].
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