International business leader to speak at UF

Michael Goldberg, an experienced venture capitalist, international business leader and Case Western Reserve University visiting professor, will give a free, public presentation at The University of Findlay on March 25 at noon in Old Main’s Ritz Auditorium. A reception will follow the presentation at the second floor Ritz entrance.
Goldberg’s speech is titled “Why Should the World Care about Cleveland’s Experience Supporting Entrepreneurship?” He will discuss the creation of his Massive Open Online Course, “Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies.” The course examines how Cleveland, ranked last out of 61 communities by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2002 in terms of entrepreneurship support, attempted to grow its start-up community through funding from the government, donors and the private sector. The course has attracted more than 40,000 students from 190 countries since its launch in April 2014, and has been translated into 10 languages.
Goldberg’s efforts and expertise have influenced start-ups and students around the world. He co-founded the Bridge Investment Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in Israeli medical device companies that have ties to Cleveland’s healthcare sector; and is a senior advisor to the China-based Kaiwu Capital fund.
The Cleveland native has worked for Microsoft and the International Management Group. He had also been director of international business development for America Online, where he was responsible for structuring and negotiating international partnerships for AOL in Asia.
In South Africa, he worked at the National Democratic Institute to design and implement voter education programs for the country’s first democratic election in 1994.
As a Fulbright award recipient in 2011, he spent five months at Vietnam’s National Economics University in Hanoi teaching entrepreneurial finance courses.
At Case Western Reserve University, Goldberg is a visiting assistant professor in the Weatherhead School of Management’s Department of Design and Innovation.
Goldberg will be a Shiv Kumar Gupta Faculty Chair speaker.