Stephen W. Ritterbush, a 1968
graduate and trustee of Union College,
will speak on “The Future of Technology
in the Tech Valley: Where Will Union College Wind Up?” on Thursday,
Feb. 5, at 4:30 p.m. in
the F.W. Olin Center auditorium (Room 115).
His talk is free and open to the public.
Among the questions Ritterbush
will explore are:
— Can the Capital Region attract
businesses without using short-lived tax incentives and variances on
regulations?
— Are there effective methods for
sustaining business that are not onerous to taxpayers?
— Can
Union College
play a role in cultivating the creative environment that will attract and keep
those businesses?
Ritterbush is managing partner of
Fairfax Partners in Vienna, Va.,
a private equity investment firm that has founded more than 25 companies including
ISR Solutions, the world's largest privately held security systems integration
company; and AppNet Systems Inc., which provided a variety of web-based
services, and was sold to an internet service provider.
He earned his bachelor's degrees from
Union in civil engineering and political science. While
at Union he studied at the University of Stockholm,
Sweden, in 1968. He was named to the College's Board of Trustees last year.
Besides his Union degrees,
Ritterbush earned a master's of science degree in oceanography from the University
of Hawaii; and a master's degree in
law and diplomacy and a Ph.D. in international economics from the Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. Ritterbush was also a
Rockefeller Foundation fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University.
He serves on the Dean's Council at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and is a director of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute.