Entrepreneurs, business executives and students will gather this weekend to honor Robert Felton, president, chairman and chief operating officer of Indus International Inc., as Cornell's 1998 Entrepreneur of the Year.
Felton will receive the award at a dinner tonight hosted by President Hunter Rawlings, and Felton will deliver a public address Friday at 2 p.m. in Bache Amphitheater of Malott Hall.
The weekend's activities are sponsored by Cornell's Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Program (EPE), an initiative of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Johnson Graduate School of Management that brings a multidisciplinary approach to the study of entrepreneurship.
The Entrepreneur of the Year award recognizes the achievements and qualities of Cornell alumni who best exemplify the ideals of entrepreneurship. Past recipients include Sanford Weill '55, chairman and chief executive officer of Travelers Co.; David Duffield '63, MBA '64, CEO of PeopleSoft; and Irwin Jacobs '56, CEO of Qualcomm.
Felton, who graduated from Cornell in 1961, co-founded the San Francisco-based Indus in 1988 as a provider of application software packages for customers in the electric utilities, petrochemical, heavy manufacturing, transportation and packaged goods industries. In August 1997 Indus merged with TSW International, creating Indus International Inc., the largest provider of enterprise-asset management software in the world.
In addition to Felton's honor, the weekend's activities include various workshops and seminars, including panel discussions on:
· "The Value of Values," with Don Gulbrandsen '84, president of Gulbrandsen Manufacturing Inc.; Murem Sharpe '70, senior vice president of Kelly Services; and Eric Young '78, general partner with Canaan Partners. Felton will be moderator. Friday at 9 a.m., Statler Hotel Amphitheater.
· "Women in Entrepreneurship," with Jennifer Allyn, senior associate for Catalyst; Franchellie Cadwell '55, president of Cadwell, Davis and Partners; Jan Rock Zubrow '77, chief executive officer of MedCapital LLC. Murem Sharpe '70, senior vice president of Kelly Services, will serve as moderator. Friday at 12:15 p.m. the Yale-Princeton Room, Statler Hotel.
A round-table discussion on entrepreneurial career opportunities will be held from 9 to 10:15 a.m. and from 10:45 to noon Saturday in the Terrace Lounge of the Statler Hotel. Discussion leaders include: Don Gulbrandsen '84, Gulbrandsen Manufacturing Inc.; John Alexander '74, MBA '76, CBORD Group Inc.; Richard Hayman '67, Hayman Systems; Bernard Kershner, MBA '64, Health Resources International; Xavier Kohan '67, Flower Warehouse; Cornell trustee Jeff Parker '65, MEng '66, MBA '70; and Donald Weiss '55, founder of White Storage and Retrieval Systems Inc.
Under the EPE program, more than 750 Cornell undergraduate and graduate students receive instruction each year on small business management.
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