Alan and Ben will share the details of how their Carleton Experience helped them become successful entrepreneurs.
"Some Ideas about Inventing Stuff"
Alan Bauer is a former President of Progressive Direct and a renowned insurance innovator. During Alan's more than five years as head of Progressive's direct business, premium grew by more than 20% per annum to over $4 billion. Under his leadership, Progressive was the first to sell auto insurance over the Internet, the first to use personal credit scoring as a rating variable, as well as a pioneer in offering online tools for self-service options. He holds a number of patents. He is a graduate of Carleton College, double majoring in Math and Philosophy.
"Entrepreneurship and the Liberal Arts"
Ben Kazez launched the FlightTrack app in November 2008. Funded by app sales, Mobiata grew to millions of dollars in annual revenue, with a suite of travel apps featured by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, TechCrunch, CNN, TIME Magazine, and the Webby Awards (Best Travel App). In 2009 BusinessWeek named Ben one of America’s Top 25 Best Young Entrepreneurs. In November 2010 Mobiata was acquired by Expedia, where Ben now leads mobile products. Ben enjoys traveling, cooking, and studying opera singing.
Dr. Luke Lightning ‘93, Senior Director of Research, Alquest Therapeutics, Founder, MogulDex
Luke is Senior Director of Research at Alquest Therapeutics, a virtual biotech startup based at UCSF Mission Bay. He has 9+ years of pre-clinical ADMA experience in the biotech industry and another 9+ years of academic experience in the drug metabolism field. He has been involved in pre-clinical programs that progressed to human clinical trials in the areas of schizophrenia as well as cardiovascular and gastroinestinal diseases. Prior to pursuing a career in the industry, he was an Assistant Professor at Purdue University, worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar at UCSF, and graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota with a degree in Chemistry. He is also Founder of MogulDex, Founder of the Bay Area Life Tech Meetup group, lead organizer of Native American History Night with the SF Giants, and member of SF Planning Department's Western SOMA Task Force.