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European Entrepreneurs Invade Silicon Valley
FinNode Sponsors European Speaker Series at Stanford University; Moderates Panel on January 26th
Santa Clara, Calif. – January 22, 2009 – Silicon Valley is known worldwide for being a hotbed of entrepreneurship, and so it is easy to overlook the fact that many of today's successful start-ups were founded in Europe or by European entrepreneurs. Stanford University is hoping to change that misperception by hosting the first ever, European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders program, and on January 26th a panel of Finnish entrepreneurs and investors takes the stage.
The European Entrepreneurship program includes a series of speaking panels in which European entrepreneurs, investors, corporations and academics offer their thoughts on innovation and industry leadership. FinNode Silicon Valley, a network designed to help Silicon Valley companies connect with partners in Finland and the U.S., is a sponsor of the series.
Kari Herlevi, Program Manager of FinNode USA, spearheaded FinNode's sponsorship of the speaker series. "Skype, Habbo Hotel, Futuremark, MySQL and many others are well known companies here in the Valley that many don't realize are European in origin. We want to support education about interesting technology ventures and University spin-outs happening in Europe. There are major developments in European startups, venture finance and technology commercialization that we can all learn from."
FinNode's Pekka Parnanen will be moderating the January 26th panel which will feature companies and investors from Finland discussing local and worldwide economic challenges in building a global company. Companies presenting include MySQL, Nexit Ventures, Futuremark North America, Connected Day and WhatAMap.
The European Entrepreneurship course is taught by Dr. Burton Lee, Adjunct Professor in the Stanford University School of Engineering and co-founder of Space Angels Network, who created the speaker/networking dinners as part of a new class offered by the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME); the course is designated ME421. "There is no program today in Silicon Valley that regularly focuses on entrepreneurship in European high tech industry and universities," explained Dr. Lee. "The European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders program fills an important gap in the Silicon Valley graduate engineering and business and venture finance communities."
Event Series Details
The speaking panels are open to the public at no charge and will be held most Mondays starting January 12th and lasting through June 1 of 2009:
- Lecture Times: Monday afternoons, from 4:15 to 5:30pm, except holidays & Stanford University Spring Break
- Location: Skilling Auditorium, Stanford University campus, School of Engineering
- Post-lecture Reception: 5:45 to 6:15 pm
- Evening Dinner Program: Invitation-only Networking Dinner, 6:30 to 9:00 pm
The weekly schedule of speakers and entrepreneur panels also can be viewed at www.europeanentrepreneursatstanford.com. Stanford expects to make available to the public delayed video of each session in the near future. The networking dinners are by invitation only.
About FinNode
Comprised of members of the business and technology community, FinNode is a network designed to help Silicon Valley companies connect with partners in Finland and the U.S. With domain expertise in 23 different industries, FinNode provides resources for business development, internationalization, R&D, outsourcing, intellectual property licensing, venture funding and university partnerships. The FinNode community offers executive-level contacts and expertise relevant to Fortune 1000 companies, start-ups and universities. For more information, please visit www.finnode.com.
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U.S. Media Contact:
Juliet Travis
Rocket Science PR, for FinNode
+1 415.464.8110 x 5
juliet@rocketscience.com