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Beginning with the founding of Arthur D. Little, Inc. in Cambridge in 1886, MIT alumni, faculty,
and students have played key roles in launching thousands of companies worldwide, ranging from small,
specialized high-tech operations to corporate giants such as Genentech, Gillette, Hewlett-Packard,
Teradyne, and Raytheon. Many of these companies have formed the cornerstone of new industries,
including biotechnology, streamlined digital technologies, local computer networks, defense,
semi-conductors, minicomputers, advanced computers, and venture capital. MIT scientists and
entrepreneurs laid the groundwork for much of the current biotech industry - and biomedical
advances have continued with MIT-originated developments such as the first effective new treatment
for brain cancer in a generation. The MIT Technology Licensing Office (TLO) has more than 1,000
issued US patents in its portfolio, many with foreign counterparts. Each year, the TLO annually
grants as many as 60-80 licensing agreements.
The unmatched record of achievement of MIT-educated entrepreneurs is described in a recent study, "Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT". It estimates that 25,600 companies founded or co-founded by living MIT alumni were still in existence in 2006, employing 3.3 million people worldwide and generating revenues of close to $2 trillion. That would make the ensemble of MIT-alumni companies the equivalent in GDP of the 11th largest economy in the world. And MIT's impact extends far beyond the borders of Massachusetts, which headquarters MIT-alumni companies that employ about one million women and men. The report estimates that California firms started by MIT alumni employ over 500 thousand people, and twenty states have over 10,000 people employed by MIT entrepreneurs. This impact is global as well, with half of the foreign-student MIT-alumni entrepreneurs likely to return to their home countries.
Table 1 is drawn from that report, illustrating some of the larger firms founded by MIT alumni.
Table 1. Examples of Important MIT Alumni-Founded
Companies (ordered by $ sales*)
Company
|
Location
|
Employment (Thousands)
|
Sales (Millions)
|
MIT Founder
|
MIT Class
|
Founded
|
Koch
Industries
|
Wichita
KA
|
80
|
$110,000
|
Charles Koch
|
1957
|
1967
(consolidation)
|
David
Koch
|
1962
|
Intel
Corporation
|
Santa
Clara CA
|
86
|
38,300
|
Robert
Noyce
|
1954
|
1968
|
Hewlett-Packard
|
Palo
Alto CA
|
156
|
22,600
|
William
Hewlett
|
1936
|
1939
|
Raytheon
Co.
|
Lexington
MA
|
72
|
21,300
|
Vannevar
Bush
|
1916
|
1922
|
McDonnell
Douglas
|
St.
Louis MO
|
70
|
14,470
|
James McDonnell Jr.
|
1925
|
1939
|
Texas
Instruments
|
Dallas
TX
|
30
|
13,830
|
Cecil
Green
|
1923
|
1930
|
Digital
Equipment Corp. (DEC)
|
Maynard
MA
|
140
|
13,000 (in 1997)
|
Kenneth
Olsen
|
1950
|
1957
|
Harlan
Anderson
|
1953
|
Genentech
|
San
Francisco CA
|
12
|
11,724
|
Robert
Swanson
|
1970
|
1976
|
Qualcomm
Inc.
|
San
Diego CA
|
13
|
9,800
|
Irwin
Jacobs
|
1959
|
1985
|
ThermoElectron
|
Waltham
MA
|
30
|
9,000
|
George
Hatsopoulos
|
1949
|
1956
|
Synnex Corp. |
Fremont, CA |
3 |
6,344 |
Robert Huang |
1979 |
1980 |
America
Online
|
Dulles
VA
|
15
|
6,110
|
Marc
Seriff
|
1973
|
2001
|
Symantec
Corp.
|
Cupertino
CA
|
16
|
4,143
|
Denis
Coleman
|
1968
|
1982
|
Analog
Devices
|
Norwood
MA
|
9
|
2,570
|
Ray
Stata
|
1957
|
1965
|
Matthew Lorber
|
1957
|
Gillette
|
Boston
MA
|
29
|
2250
(in 2003)
|
William
Emery Nickerson
|
1876
|
1901
|
Bose Corp.
|
Framingham
MA
|
10
|
2,000
|
Amar
Bose
|
1956
|
1964
|
Teradyne
|
Boston
MA
|
4
|
1,600
|
Alex
d'Arbeloff,
|
1949
|
1960
|
Nick DeWolf
|
1949
|
International
Data Group (IDG)
|
Boston
MA
|
13
|
1,520
|
Patrick
McGovern
|
1959
|
1964
|
E*Trade
Group
|
New
York NY
|
4
|
1,400
|
William
Porter
|
1967
|
1991
|
3Com
Corporation
|
Marlborough
MA
|
6
|
1,300
|
Robert Metcalfe
|
1969
|
1979
|
Sepracor
|
Marlborough
MA
|
2
|
1,225
|
Robert
Bratzler
|
1975
|
1984
|
Avid
Technology
|
Tewksbury
MA
|
1
|
930
|
Bill
Warner
|
1980
|
1987
|
VMware
Inc.
|
Palo
Alto CA
|
3
|
704
|
Diane
Greene
|
1978
|
1998
|
Akamai
|
Cambridge,
MA
|
1
|
636
|
Tom
Leighton, |
1981 |
1998
|
| Jonathan
Seelig, |
1998 |
| Preetish
Nijhawan |
1998 |
Patni
Computer Systems Ltd.
|
Mumbai,
India
|
13
|
579
|
Naren
Patni
|
1966
|
1978
|
Millennium
Pharmaceuticals
|
Cambridge
MA
|
1
|
527
|
Eric
Lander
|
1986
|
1993
|
Medical
Information Technology
|
Westwood
MA
|
3
|
400
|
Neil
Pappalardo,
|
1961
|
1969
|
Edward
Roberts,
|
1957
|
Curtis
Marble,
|
1961
|
Jerome
Grossman
|
1962
|
iRobot
Corp.
|
Burlington
MA
|
1
|
249
|
Colin
Angle,
|
1989
|
1990
|
Helen
Greiner
|
1990
|
The
Math Works
|
Natick
MA
|
2
|
230
|
Jack
Little
|
1978
|
1984
|
* All sales and employment data are from 2006 or the most recent year available prior to 2006, and are rounded off to the nearest whole number.
In the 1940s, MIT President Karl Taylor Compton, working with members of the local business
community, conceived the idea of a high-tech venture capital firm to help nurture the development
of companies springing up in the region. This work led to the founding of the first modern venture
capital company, American Research and Development (ARD), in 1946.
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