Salim Ismail

Salim Ismail
Born (1965-05-17) May 17, 1965
Hyderabad, India
Alma mater University of Waterloo
Occupation Global Ambassador for Singularity University, co-founder of Confabb, PubSub Concepts and Angstro
Years active 1989–present
Website Salimismail.com

Salim Ismail (born May 17, 1965 in Hyderabad, India) is a Canadian angel investor, speaker, advisor, entrepreneur and strategist.[1] He is author of the Amazon bestseller Exponential Organizations,[2] founding executive director of Singularity University and co-founder of Confabb,[3] PubSub Concepts[4] and Angstro, acquired by Google in 2010.[5][6] Ismail had a background as an entrepreneur and was the head of Brickhouse, Yahoo's internal incubator for new products.[3] He currently serves as Founding Executive Director & Global Ambassador for Singularity University.[7][8]

Early Career and Entrepreneurial Activities

Ismail graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1989[9] and worked as a software architect for CSC Europe and later as a business consultant at ITIM Associates in London. In 1999, he became the COO of New York Business Forums in New York City. After 9/11, he founded NYGC, an organization formed to help deliver grants to affected businesses in Lower Manhattan. NYGC helped deliver over 25% ($12 million) of all grants given out in the area.[10] Ismail was named one of the “Top 40 under 40″ businesspeople in 2003 by Crain in New York City. In 2002, Ismail co-founded PubSub Concepts, which laid down some of the infrastructure for the real time web and served as its Chairman/CEO until 2005. The company had an ugly ending that was discussed at various PR crisis management conferences.[11] In 2006, he co-founded Confabb.com with four others to create a centralized place to get information about conferences.[3] The company received $200k in angel funding from early investors including Dave Winer.[12][13]

Silicon Valley

In late 2006, Ismail moved to Silicon Valley and in early 2007, Yahoo appointed Ismail as a Vice President and Head of Brickhouse, Yahoo's internal incubator.[3] The objective of Brickhouse was to form teams to work on disruptive ideas. During his tenure with Yahoo, Ismail worked on several products and launched new products for them including WildFire, Yahoo Pipes and Fire Eagle.[14] Ismail was one of the executives that left Yahoo in the wake of the Microsoft bid in 2008 and with his friend, Rohit Khare he cofounded Angstro, a company that used social networks to find news about their clients, colleagues and friends.[15] The service notified users in real time and attracted search engine giant, Google's attention, who acquired Angstro in 2010.[6]

In September, 2008, NASA invited Ismail to the founding conference of Singularity University, held at NASA’s Ames Research Center. In October of that year, Ismail was appointed as the founding Executive Director. For two years, Ismail worked with Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil, along with key partners NASA, Google, Cisco, Autodesk and Genentech to build out the university, building the core team and faculty, establishing the curriculum and leading the first programs.[16][17] In late 2010, Ismail took on the role of Global Ambassador.

Stage presence

Ismail speaks frequently at conferences and industry events. As of 2012 he holds the position of Global Ambassador for Singularity University, representing SU at various conferences and industry events.[18] Ismail has spoken at various TED conferences, the Noco Foundation and Ciudad de las Ideas in 2012.

In 2011 Ismail started writing Exponential Organizations with co-authors Mike Malone and Yuri van Geest. The book was released on October 14, 2014.

References

  1. ↑ "Salim Ismail". Singularity University. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  2. ↑ http://www.exponentialorgs.com/
  3. 1 2 3 4 Arrington, Michael (Mar 14, 2007). "Salim Ismail To Head Yahoo Brickhouse". Techcrunch. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  4. ↑ Mossberg, Walter S. "Pubsub, Rollyo Offer Web Search Services The Big Engines Don't." The Wall Street Journal, 2 Feb 2006, B1.
  5. ↑ Cain Miller, Claire (Aug 29, 2010). "Google acquires social networking startup Angstro". Reuters. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  6. 1 2 Yarow, Jay (Aug 27, 2010). "Google Acquires More Social Networking Talent, Buys Angstro". Business Insider. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  7. ↑ "Salim Ismail Global Ambassador; Founding Executive Director". Singularity University. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "Salim Ismail: Success in the Age of the Billion-Dollar Startup". The Wall Street Journal. Sep 22, 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "Event Speaker Profile - Salim Ismail". Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  10. ↑ P. Fried, Joseph (May 15, 2005). "A Guide Through the Government Maze". New York Times. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  11. ↑ "The Rumors of our death are only slightly exaggerated.". Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  12. ↑ Marshall, Matt (February 21, 2007). "Roundup: OpenID, Rupture, Startupping, Confabb, Trulia and more". Venturebeat. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  13. ↑ Matt Hickey (Nov 13, 2006). "Confabb: Find, Track and Review Conferences". Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  14. ↑ Arrington, Michael (Feb 12, 2008). "Brickhouse Head Leaves Yahoo". Techcrunch. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  15. ↑ Can Miller, Claire (August 27, 2010). "Google Acquires Angstro, a Social Networking Start-Up". New York Times. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  16. ↑ McDonald, Kim Chandler. Innovation: How Innovators Think, Act and Change Our World. Kogan Page Publishers. ISBN 0749469676. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  17. ↑ Rowan, David (May 6, 2013). "On the exponential curve: inside Singularity University". Wired. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  18. ↑ Hicks, Jennifer (October 12, 2013). "When A Festival Has Nothing To Do With Music". Forbes. Retrieved 26 September 2014.


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