WHO: Steve Blank, entrepreneur, author, professor, founder of the lean startup movement. Had it been put to a vote, Blank says he might have been chosen “least likely to succeed” in his New York City high school class. Yet, after 21 years in eight high technology companies, he has changed the way startups are built, business is taught, and how companies and government innovate.

Blank co-founded his last company, E.piphany, in his living room in 1996. Other startups include two semiconductor companies, Zilog and MIPS Computers, a workstation company Convergent Technologies, a consulting stint for a graphics hardware/software spinout Pixar, a supercomputer firm, Ardent, a computer peripheral supplier, SuperMac, a military intelligence systems supplier, ESL and a video game company, Rocket Science Games. He retired in 1999 and now teaches at Stanford University, the University of California Berkeley, and Columbia University, among others. He is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany, and is co-author with Bob Dorf of The Startup Owners Manual.

Assistant Professor of Business Nancy Forster Holt will moderate.

WHAT: University of Rhode Island’s Innovate@URI Launch Lab Leaders in Innovation Speaker Series.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 7, 4 p.m.

WHERE: Swan Hall, Doody Auditorium

TO MAKE COVERAGE ARRANGEMENTS: Contact Dave Lavallee, URI Marketing and Communications, 401-874-5862 or dlavallee@uri.edu