Flywheel Ventures Chairman Receives Top Engineering and Technology Education Honors
Albuquerque, NM (February 17, 2009) - Flywheel Ventures announced that Dr. Tom Byers, Chairman of Flywheel Ventures’ Strategic Advisory Board and LP Advisory Committee, was honored today as one of two winners of the Bernard M. Gordon Prize, one of the highest honors presented by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for his work developing unique entrepreneurial-themed curricula for scientists and engineers. Flywheel Ventures is a venture capital firm that typically makes the first institutional investments in innovations based in information technology and the physical sciences with origins in the Mountain West region of the United States. Flywheel has offices in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and San Francisco.
The Bernard M. Gordon Prize, issued annually, recognizes innovation in engineering and technology education—“for pioneering, continually developing, and tirelessly disseminating technology entrepreneurship education resources for engineering students and educators around the world.”
Dr. Byers and co-winner Dr. Tina Seelig were recognized for their work with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) at Stanford University. Flywheel founder and General Partner Trevor Loy assisted Dr. Byers in the early stages of STVP’s development. STVP is an education center that provides students across the university with entrepreneurial skills needed to use innovations to solve major world problems, with an emphasis on the environment, human health, and information technology.
As Chairman of Flywheel’s Strategic Advisory Board and LP Advisory Committee, Dr. Byers provides Flywheel and its portfolio company entrepreneurs with critical insight and leadership regarding global market opportunities, trends, and challenges for innovation-based companies.
Loy said about the awarding of the Gordon Prize to Dr. Byers, “Entrepreneurship is so much more than just creating businesses – it is a way of thinking, managing and leading that plays a critical role in turning innovation into solutions to the world’s key global challenges and opportunities. Tom is a true pioneer in evangelizing, developing and training these skills worldwide, and richly deserves this prestigious recognition. Today’s award is proof of the growing recognition of entrepreneurship skills as key to a 21st-century engineering education. Flywheel is honored to have Tom’s involvement and congratulates him on this great honor.”
Based in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, STVP now hosts 25 different courses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership, and reaches nearly 2,000 students each academic year. One particularly noteworthy effort is the Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education (REE) conference series, which facilitates a global dialogue with other educators about best practices in technology entrepreneurship education. The conferences are now held annually on four continents. STVP also developed the Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner Web site, which is a free collection of video clips and podcasts for viewers around the world who wish to learn more about entrepreneurship and innovation.
In consideration of his award, Dr. Byers said,"Tina Seelig and I are deeply humbled by this recognition by the NAE. It has been a true team effort from the beginning. We are now more motivated than ever to seek solutions to the grand challenges of our time by stimulating both entrepreneurship and innovative technologies.”
Tom is co-author of a popular textbook called Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise published by McGraw-Hill. Tom also has a range of business experience including executive vice president of Symantec. For his efforts at Stanford, Tom holds two endowed chairs and received its Gores Award for excellence in teaching (the university’s highest award).
For more information on STVP please visit http://stvp.stanford.edu and for more information about Flywheel Ventures please visit http://www.flywheelventures.com.
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