Inaugural Class of Entrepreneur Walk of Fame to be Unveiled

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Entrepreneur Walk of Fame will unveil its inaugural class of esteemed honorees whose names will be immortalized with a sidewalk star in Kendall Square on Friday, September 16, 2011. Similar to Hollywood's celebration of movie stars, the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame (EntWoF) awards entrepreneurs at the top of their fields who have taken strong steps to transform the business culture and jumpstart the economy.

The induction ceremony will be held at 1:00 p.m. in Kendall Square where the stars are located and will include speeches about each of the inductees and the unveiling of their stars.  

This year's honorees are:  

• Thomas Edison - General Electric
• Bill Gates - Microsoft
• Bill Hewlett & David Packard - HP
• Steve Jobs - Apple
• Mitch Kapor - Lotus
• Bob Swanson - Genentech

A panel of top business leaders selected each of the honorees based on their innovation, economic impact and legacy, which will serve to inspire others to pursue entrepreneurship. The panel will select a new group of honorees each year. Posters depicting the inspirational stories of the honorees will be displayed around the city with a QR code that allows smartphone users to tap into a virtual world of information to learn more about each entrepreneur.

Members of the selection committee for this year's inductees included:

• Bill Aulet, Managing Director,
  MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Chairman of EntWoF Selection Committee

• Tom Byers, Director,
  Stanford Technology Ventures Program

• George Colony, Founder, Chairman & CEO,
  Forrester Research

• Desh Deshpande, Co-Chairman, National
  Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship

• Emily Nagle Green, Chairman,
  Yankee Group

• Bryan Pearce, Ernst & Young,
  Americas Director of Entrepreneur of the Year Program

• Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief,
  Technology Review

• Carl Schramm, President and CEO,
  Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

The project started when Leland Chung, Cambridge City Councilor, President and co-founder of the EntWoF, called on a group of leading entrepreneurial thinkers to brainstorm what government could do to encourage and support entrepreneurship in cities across America. "One of my top priorities as City Councilor is to transform government into an institution that helps people and makes our community an even better place to live," Cheung said. "I want to inspire people, especially kids, to pursue entrepreneurship to give back to the community and the world."

Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, co-founder and Chair of the selection committee of the EntWoF, hopes the legacy of the seven iconic honorees and their incredible stories will inspire others to answer the call of entrepreneurship. "The Entrepreneur Walk of Fame was created to celebrate the best of the best," Aulet said. "We want the Walk of Fame to serve as inspiration to future generations representing the men and women who have put themselves on the line, taken the risks and left a trail behind them for someone else to follow suit."

The founding sponsors of the EntWoF are the Kauffman Foundation, Ernst & Young, IDEO, the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Latham and Watkins LLC, and Boston Properties.

Details of the Entrepreneur Walk of Fame can be found at http://www.EntWoF.org and on Twitter @EntWoF. You may also contact EntWoF at [email protected] or by calling Amanda Brown at: 617-893-7989. The EntWoF event kicks off a weekend festival celebrating entrepreneurship at MIT called t=0, meant to inspire students to be more innovative and entrepreneurial. Details of this event can be found at http://t0.mit.edu.

SOURCE Ernst & Young