Venture capitalist Stephen Ritterbush '68 challenged the College to develop programs that “play to our heritage to develop entrepreneurs.”
Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 5, to an audience of faculty, students, staff and community residents, Ritterbush said the College is well positioned to use its unique convergence of liberal arts and engineering to play an important role in the developing Tech Valley initiative.
His talk was titled “The Future of Technology in the Tech Valley: Where Will Union College Wind Up?”
Ritterbush, who last year was named to the College's Board of Trustees, opened his talk by tracing the career of Robert Noyce, the founder of Intel and Fairchild Semiconductor whose interest in the nascent field of integrated circuits took root under the tutelage of his Grinnell College professors. Grinnell, which early on invested in Noyce's enterprises, grew its endowment from $30 million in 1972 to $1.3 billion today, due in large part to the dominance of Noyce's companies, Ritterbush said.
“What cutting edge disciplines can we get into that will turn out graduates like Robert Noyce?” he asked.
Ritterbush also related his experience in studying the success of Silicon Valley and Route 128 in Boston, both of which drew heavily on the deep base of engineering and managerial talent from nearby colleges and universities. Those institutions, in turn, rose on the success of their regions, he said.
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.
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.