Dr. Jack Gill's lecture on November 14, 2018, entitled How Silicon Valley Ideas Can Propel the Houston Innovation Eco-System, presented best practices of university led innovation and entrepreneurship programs based on his extensive experience in Silicon Valley, MIT, and Harvard. Following his keynote lecture, there was a "fireside chat” led by Brian Patterson (Rice Board of Trustees) and a panel discussion on the role of Rice University in the rapidly growing Houston innovation community. The panel, moderated by Peter Rodriguez (Dean, Jones School), included the following:
Reginald DesRoches (Dean, School of Engineering)
Jack Gill (Rice Professor of the Practice, Co-founder Goose Society)
Brian Patterson (Rice Board of Trustees, Founder of White Star Real Estate and White Star Ventures)
Allison Thacker (President and CIO, The Rice Management Company)
James Tour (TT Chao Professor of Chemistry)
About the Speaker
Jack M. Gill, PhD, is the founder of Palo Alto-based Vanguard Ventures, a high-tech venture capital firm managing over $500 million. Throughout his career, Dr. Gill has achieved success in five different careers as a scientist, entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, and university professor. He has well over a decade of experience teaching entrepreneurship courses in science, engineering and medicine at Harvard Medical School, MIT and now Rice University.
Dr. Gill founded Vanguard Ventures in 1981 which successes created over $70 billion in market value, over 25,000 jobs and returned over $1 billion to investors. Vanguard ranks among the nation’s leading high-tech VC firms and has been the lead investor in over 100 medical devices, biotech, telecom and computer-internet related companies. Successful companies include Aldus, Network Appliance, Ciena, Cobalt Networks and Digital Island. In 1999 he received the prestigious Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans. He serves as Trustee at Indiana University and on the Boards of the National Academies, Project Hope, the Horatio Alger Association, The Texas Emerging Technology Fund and several non-profits. Together with his wife Linda Gill, Dr. Gill established the Gill Foundation of Texas in 1997, which focuses on educational philanthropy. Dr. Gill earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry and engineering from Lamar University and received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Indiana University.
This event was presented by the Rice Alliance, Jones Graduate School of Business, Ken Kennedy Institute, Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Smalley-Curl Institute and the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering.