Ken Morse

Ken Morse Speaker Biography

Serial Entrepreneur, Innovation Expert
& Global Sales Veteran

Ken has been assisting major corporations globally to achieve significant incremental, radical and open innovation for 20 + years. He has also been a high performance leader in global high tech sales and sales management for 35 + years.

CEO

Ken Morse was a co-founder of six high-tech companies, together with MIT friends and classmates. Five of these ventures had successful IPOs or mergers; one was a disaster. They included 3Com Corporation, Aspen Technology, Inc., a China Trade Company, a biotech venture, and an expert systems company. Ken was either the CEO or responsible for part or all of the Sales organization in each of these new enterprises. During his 4+ years as Managing Director of AspenTech (AZPN) Europe SA/NV, Ken’s team achieved 18 consecutive quarters of on-target sales performance by building close strategic relationships with the leading chemical and pharmaceutical companies throughout Europe and the Middle East. He grew the AspenTech EMEA organization from 22 to 200+ employees with basically zero staff turnover, and expanded sales revenue 600% – 900% with key client relationships.

Early Career

In 1975 Ken formed a trading advisory company under the aegis of Chase Manhattan Bank to assist U.S. and European technology-based companies such as IBM, General Motors, Gillette, Hughes Aircraft, Mine Safety Appliances, Waters Associates, and others to enter the China market. Ken was based in Beijing for five years during the latter half of the Cultural Revolution. Since returning to the US in 1980 when he joined in founding 3Com Corporation, he has focused on building global technology-based businesses.

Education

Ken’s interest in global innovation and high tech ventures began at MIT, where he graduated with a BS in Political Science in 1968 followed in 1972 by an MBA from Harvard Business School. Upon graduation, he joined Schroders, the UK-based merchant bank, where he worked directly for Jim Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank.

MIT Entrepreneurship Center

In the 13 years (1996 – 2009) that Ken served as Founding Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, the number of students taking Entrepreneurship Courses increased from 220 to 1,600 per year while the number of professors grew from 3 to over 36. He launched the Corporate Venturing Consortium (CVC) through which F-100 corporations shared best practices and challenges with their innovation strategies. Ken also conceived and led the weeklong MIT Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP), which over the past 12 years trained more than 1,500 global entrepreneurs in an intensive on campus executive education program. Ken was named “Education All Star” by “Mass High Tech” magazine, and was a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board (2009 – 2011).

Entrepreneurship

Ken is Chairman & CEO of Entrepreneurship Ventures Inc. which convenes an experienced team of practitioners and serial entrepreneurs to help world class companies to accelerate innovation. The Entrepreneurship Ventures [EV] team also delivers Entrepreneurial Skills Development workshops and programs in Colombia, Canada, Europe (Norway, Romania, Scotland, Spain, The Netherlands), Turkey, the Middle East (Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE), Pakistan and New Zealand.

Advisor

In the U.S., Ken advises several MIT spin-offs including Cambrian Innovation Inc., Cogito Corporation, Concentric Power Inc, Connectloud Inc., FloDesign Sonics, HubSpot Internet Marketing, and Terrafugia. During 2013, two young companies in Spain advised by Ken achieved important milestones: one was sold to Intel and the other received two major infusions of foreign capital, creating more high value jobs in Andalusia and Valencia.

Affiliations

Ken served on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) for President Obama (Washington) which conceived and launched “Startup America” and the “JOBS Act”, and earned strong bi-partisan support. Ken advises major corporations (in the US, LATAM, Europe, Turkey and Japan) on their innovation strategies. He is a member of the Telefónica Disruptive Council (Madrid) and the Council on Foreign Relations (NYC). Since 2009 Ken is Visiting Professor at the ESADE Business School in Barcelona.

Elsewhere, Ken serves on the Board of Advisors of several ambitious global startups, including Denkwerk GmbH and Kontale GmbH in Germany; Zylinc Ltd in Denmark; Izon Science Ltd in New Zealand; Naseeb Networks Inc. and Sofizar Ltd in Pakistan, NewTrax Technologies Inc., PixMob, and MicroSigns in Québec, Increnta and Invenio learn.by.doing in Spain, and DataSpell in Turkey.

Ken speaks almost fluent French and some Chinese. When he is not helping young companies to succeed, Ken enjoys sailing his 55-year old wooden boat with his family around Cape Cod.