Entrepreneurship: Back to Basics

Gordon Baty practices, preaches, and promotes entrepreneurship. Professionally, he has occupied every seat around the table. He has run three venture-capital financed start-ups; has sat on twenty boards; has been a private investor in several; and has been an institutional investor in many more. He has also taught entrepreneurship at the university level, has written extensively about it, venture capital, and the management of innovation. Baty has advised government and university officials on entrepreneurship, seed capital, and the commercialization of technology. He holds BS, MS, PhD degrees from MIT. Michael S. Blake has been an active participant at all stages of the entrepreneurial process throughout his career. During most of the 1990s, he worked closely with fledgling entrepreneurs in the new market of the former Soviet Union. He had delivered seminars to teach entrepreneurs how to formulate a Western-style business plan and to approach venture investors. He has assisted several participants to raise capital to start and grow their own businesses. Mr. Blake has worked for an Israeli merchant bank that invested and raised capital for Israeli and North American technology ventures. He is presently a Senior consultant for Jaako Poyry Management Consulting, where he focuses on supporting merger and acquisition activities in the forestry and paper industries. Mr. Blake is a CFA Charterholder and holds a BA from Franklin & Marshall College and an MBA from Georgetown University.