This award salutes successful entrepreneurs who, in turn, are important role models for the students of Rensselaer.

	What Alumni Event, Student Event, Networking, Special Event When Friday, October 21, 2011 9:30 - 11:15 AM Where Biotech Auditorium Email SCTE@rpi.edu Phone 518.276.2650

Those honored with the award bring the world of entrepreneurship into Rensselaer’s classrooms and laboratories, sharing their experience and wisdom with all students. Given the importance of the entrepreneurial spirit in Rensselaer’s past present and future, it is indeed a singular honor Rensselaer bestows in selecting the Entrepreneur of the Year.

The 2011 honor was awarded to:

Sean O'Sullivan '85

A serial entrepreneur whose passions have spanned several industries and led him to many countries, Sean is most widely known to the RPI community as a founding member of MapInfo, one of the first companies to commercialize an easy to use mapping software for desktop computers.  Following MapInfo’s success, Sean helped start the following organizations: Sonic Recording Studios based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Net Centric, a worldwide leader in Internet fax technology in the 90's based in Cambridge, Massachusetts;  JumpStart International, an engineering humanitarian organization based in Atlanta, Georgia; SOS Ventures, a venture capital and investment management firm; and Avego Ltd., a world leading technology firm specializing in transport technology featuring a groundbreaking "Shared Transport" real-time ridesharing i-phone app, both of Kinsale, Ireland. The Entrepreneur of the Year award recognizes O’Sullivan’s work over the last 26 years of his career.

Program Video

Read more about O'Sullivan:

• Sean O’Sullivan, Alumnus and Entrepreneur, Donates $2 Million To Rensselaer To Create Center for Open Software
  Lessons from the Mideast
• Rebuilding Hope
• $1 Million Gift From Entrepreneur and Alumnus Sean O’Sullivan ’85 Launches “Change the World Challenge” at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Sean O’Sullivan Funds Engineering and Science in Africa
• O’Sullivan ’85 Receives Distinguished Service Award
  

The Paul J. '69 and Kathleen M. Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship (SCTE), established in 1988, helps foster new generations of entrepreneurs through outreach programs, education and research.  Centered in Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management & Technology, The Severino Center lies at the core of Lally’s commitment to Entrepreneurship.  The mission of the SCTE is to integrate educational and research programs by exposing every Rensselaer student to the practices and principles of entrepreneurship, to infuse the fundamentals of entrepreneurship throughout the Rensselaer curriculum, and to extend Rensselaer’s leadership and national prominence in technological entrepreneurship.