EDWARD ROBERTS

David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology,

Founder and Chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center

Ed Roberts joined the faculty of Sloan in 1961 as a founding member of the System Dynamics Group. Two years later he co-founded what is now Sloan's Technological Innovation & Entrepreneurship (TIE) group. He long chaired TIE and co-founded and until recently co-chaired the MIT Management of Technology Program, a mid-career executive education Master's degree program aimed at producing technology leaders, now merged with the Sloan Fellows Program. Over the past forty years Dr. Roberts has become internationally known for his research, teaching and active involvement in many aspects of technology management, including technology-based entrepreneurship, venture capital, and internal corporate venturing. Among many endeavors Dr. Roberts spearheaded the MIT Alumni Entrepreneurship Program in the 1960s, leading to the founding of the worldwide MIT Enterprise Forum and stimulating the formation of many new companies. In 1991 he founded and currently chairs the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. In honor of his contributions to entrepreneurship, the MIT Enterprise Forum inaugurated "The Edward B. Roberts Young Entrepreneur Award for Distinguished Leadership", presented initially in 1998 to Michael Dell. Roberts has also co-chaired MIT's International Center for Research on the Management of Technology.

In his role as a serial entrepreneur Roberts co-founded and was Chairman of Pugh-Roberts Associates (now part of PA Consultants), co-founded and is a director of Medical Information Technology, Inc. (Meditech), co-founded and served as a General Partner for twenty years of the Zero Stage Capital and First Stage Capital Equity Funds, and co-founded and is a director of Sohu.com in Beijing. Roberts has actively engaged in co-founding and/or serving on the boards of directors of many other new technological enterprises, including Advanced Magnetics, Interactive Supercomputers, InTouch Systems (purchased by Comverse Technologies), Inverness Medical Technologies (now part of Johnson & Johnson), NETsilicon (now a division of Digi International), Pegasystems, PR Restaurants, SofTech, and Tyco Laboratories (now TYCO International).

Professor Roberts has authored over 160 articles and eleven books, one of the latest being Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 1991), winner of the Association of American Publishers' award as Outstanding Book in Business and Management. He has four degrees from MIT in electrical engineering (B.S. and M.S.), management (M.S.), and economics (Ph.D.).