About the Authors

ARUN GUPTA

Arun Gupta is a venture capitalist, Lecturer at Stanford University for “Valley Meets Mission”, and Adjunct Entrepreneurship Professor and Senior Advisor to Provost at Georgetown University. He is CEO of NobleReach Foundation, which is focused on catalyzing and inspiring a renewed spirit of national service through innovation. NobleReach is scaling infrastructure to build pathways connecting top technology talent and innovation networks with government and providing the scaffolding to support their success. Arun is active in the emerging technology, entrepreneurship, public policy, and venture finance communities. He is passionate about inspiring students to pursue mission-oriented entrepreneurial careers and has committed to contribute ALL his proceeds from book sales to the NobleReach Foundation.


At Stanford University, Arun serves on the Stanford in Washington (SIW) Advisory Board, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Advisory Council, and is a Faculty Lecturer teaching " Valley Meets Mission: Purposeful Entrepreneurship with Government" at Stanford in Washington. The class highlights his venture capital and academic experience building successful mission-oriented ventures at the intersection of the government, mission, technology, and entrepreneurship.


At Georgetown University, Arun serves on the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, Tech & Society Steering Committee, and teaches Entrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capital at McDonough School of Business. He was awarded the Entrepreneurial Faculty Teaching Excellence Award and the Peter W. Gonzalez Jr. Award for Excellence in Faculty Teaching.


As a Partner at Columbia Capital, Arun’s investment career spanned eighteen years including initiating the firm’s Cybersecurity and Government technology investments with a focus on emerging tech-enabled services and infrastructure companies in National Security, AI, and SaaS/Cloud infrastructure sectors. Prior to joining Columbia Capital in 2000, Arun was at Carlyle Venture Partners focused on software investments. Prior to Carlyle, Arun held positions in Arthur D. Little’s telecom and technology consulting practice and shared responsibility for establishing ADL’s management consulting operations in Mumbai 1995-98.


Arun received a B.S. degree with Distinction in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. degree in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University (’91). He received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (’95).


Arun has lived in the Washington DC metropolitan area for over 40 years and has been actively involved in local community organizations focusing on coaching youth sports, inner city educational programs, and food insecurity programs for vulnerable communities. Arun has been happily married for 27+ years and has three wonderful children.

GERARD GEORGE

Gerry George is Group Managing Director at International Medical University (Malaysia), Senior Advisor at TPG Rise Fund, and Academic Advisor to the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative. He is on leave from MSB as the Tamsen and Michael Brown Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Previously, he served as Dean and Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Singapore Management University. Before SMU, he was Professor and Deputy Dean of Imperial College Business School, Associate Professor at London Business School, and Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University.


An award-winning researcher and teacher, Professor George has published extensively in innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and tackling grand challenges in society, and achieved the Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher distinction for Cross-Field Impact. From 2013 to 2016, he served as Editor of the Academy of Management Journal, the flagship empirical journal in the field of management. At Imperial, he was Academic Director of the London Stock Exchange’s Elite Program, which supports ambitious private companies through their next stage of growth. At MSB, he teaches Growing Entrepreneurial Businesses across EMBA, MBA and UG programs.


Among other distinctions, he was awarded a prestigious Professorial Fellowship from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council to work on socially-inclusive innovation in healthcare, natural resources, and energy. His other co-authored books include Handbook on the Business of Sustainability (Edward Elgar, 2022), Handbook of Inclusive Innovation (Edward Elgar, 2019), Managing Natural Resources (Edward Elgar, 2018), The Business Model Book (Pearson, 2018), Implausible Opportunities (Cambridge Press, 2012), and Inventing Entrepreneurs (Pearson, 2009).


Professor George received an honorary doctorate in economics from the University of St. Gallen for contributions to the fields of strategic management, innovation and entrepreneurship. He was conferred Fellowship of the City & Guilds of London Institute and Distinguished Alumnus Award from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (Pilani). He is Senior Global Fellow at University of Pennsylvania's Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies and Visiting Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Singapore Management University.


DR. THOMAS J. FEWER

Dr. Thomas J. Fewer is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative at Georgetown University and VP at NobleReach Foundation, focused on developing innovative talent programs to educate and inspire the next generation of mission-driven changemakers. He has authored several award-winning scholarly works on public-private collaborations and business and politics, and is interested how business and government can collaborate to develop technology-based solutions to major societal challenges, including issues of climate, healthcare, and food.


Previously, Thomas worked as a financial analyst at Lockheed Martin, as a national sales analyst at Subaru of America, and as a risk management analyst for the New York Rangers and Knicks at the Madison Square Garden Company. He continues to contribute to leading academic associations such as the Academy of Management, American Political Science Association, and American Sociological Association.



Thomas holds a Doctorate degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Strategic Management from Drexel University, where he was recognized as a leading business instructor in Entrepreneurship. He holds a Master’s degree in Finance from Villanova University and Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Rutgers University.

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