Singularity University Appoints Visionary Philanthropist and Entrepreneur Naveen Jain to Board of Trustees

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Singularity University's founders, Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis are pleased to announce Naveen Jain, Founder/CEO of Intelius and Founder/ Chairman of Moon Express, to their Board of Trustees. He was selected for his firm belief that there are no global problems that cannot be solved through creative thinking and disruptive technology.

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"Naveen's entrepreneurial abilities combined with his innovative thinking made him the perfect choice for this unique University," Peter Diamandis stated. "I am particularly proud to have Naveen Jain join our Board of Trustees.  He is an extraordinary entrepreneur who is passionate about using exponential technologies to solve the world's grand challenges."  

A technology pioneer and founder of Intelius, Jain explains why he joined the Board of Trustees at Singularity University: "My passion in life is to encourage everyone to look at world problems, not through rose colored glasses but through the lens of technology. With this new way of thinking, we will find solutions to positively impact the bottom billion people around the world."

As Jain is known as a man who follows his passion, his company Intelius recently awarded two Singularity University Scholarships for the Graduate Studies Program to African leaders in business and science to solve poverty and gender disparity. In addition, as X Prize Co-Chairman of Global Development and Education, Jain is spearheading many entrepreneurial incentive challenges to find solutions to agriculture, poverty, health, and clean water.  His current projects include Digital Doctor, which provides ways to give rural communities global access to primary care physicians.  He is also exploring ways to develop yet another challenge, Addictive Education, which is a Neuroscience-based program to teach students skills such as math, science, and history.

Singularity University is an interdisciplinary program, whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies to solve mankind's greatest challenges for survival. Jain, a technology pioneer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist stated "I am honored to serve as Trustee to Singularity University where students have the opportunity and access to thought leaders who can help them change the future of our planet."

About Naveen Jain:

Naveen Jain is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and a technology pioneer.

He is the founder and CEO of Intelius, a company that empowers consumers with information to make intelligent decisions about personal safety and security. Prior to Intelius, Naveen founded InfoSpace and took it public in 1998 on NASDAQ. He served as CEO of InfoSpace until December 2002. Before starting InfoSpace, Naveen was a senior executive at Microsoft Corporation.

He is Co-Chairman of Education and Global Development at the X Prize Foundation where he is focused on finding entrepreneurial solutions to address the global challenges in education, poverty, agriculture, health, and clean water.  

He is also Co-Founder and Chairman of Moon Express, applying his visionary ability to foresee and seize opportunities with moon exploration in a partnership with NASA under their Reimbursable Space Act Agreement. Moon Express (MoonEx), a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company has been selected by NASA for its $30M Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) program. The ILDD contract is for the purchase of technical data resulting from industry efforts to develop vehicle capabilities and demonstrate end-to-end robotic lunar landing missions. The data from these contracts will form the development of future human and robotic lander vehicles and exploration systems.

Awards and honors for his entrepreneurial successes and leadership skills include "Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year", "Albert Einstein Technology Medal" for pioneers in technology, "Top 20 Entrepreneurs" by Red Herring, "Six People Who Will Change the Internet" by Information Week and the prestigious Light of India Business Leadership Award from the Times Group.  His success with Intelius has earned such accolades as "Best New Company" by the American Business Awards, Puget Sound Business Journal's "One of Washington's Top Three Best Workplaces", "Rising Star" in Deloitte & Touche's Technology Fast 500 Program, "America's Top 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies" by Inc. Magazine and has been listed amongst the top 15 Corporate Philanthropists in the community.

Naveen and his family are actively engaged in many philanthropic activities and have generously contributed to an assortment of organizations dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship, and education through their www.NaveenandAnuJainFamilyFoundation.org . Many organizations have benefited from their charitable activities including; The X Prize Foundation, The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, The Intrepid Museum, United Way, Children's Hospital, HopeLink, Overlake Service League, Tree House, Boys and Girls Club, America India Foundation, Vedic Cultural Center, Seattle Art Museum, Performing Arts Center, Children Rights & You and the University of Washington.

He earned his engineering undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of technology (IIT) and went on to earn his MBA from Xavier Institute of Management. He lives in Medina, Washington (a suburb of Seattle) with his wife and three children.

He is a contributor to the Huffington Post, Forbes Women, The Economist and BNET.

ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY

Singularity University, founded in 2007, is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity's grand challenges. With the support of a broad range of leaders in academia, business and government, Singularity University hopes to stimulate groundbreaking, disruptive thinking and solutions aimed at solving some of the planet's most pressing challenges. Singularity University is based at the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley. Information at http://www.singularityu.org

SOURCE Naveen Jain