Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship [1] (PAGE) was a collaborative advisory group created by former United States President Barack Obama tasked with creating entrepreneurial growth in America. [2]
PAGE was founded by then United States President Barack Obama in 2014. The prime focus of the group was to increase the business startup culture in the United States.
In 2016, Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes stepped down as one of the ambassadors of the program due to a federal investigation into some of her activities. [3]
Other ambassadors for PAGE include former AOL CEO Steve Case, [4] Venture for America founder and 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Shark Tank investor and founder of FUBU, Daymond John, who was appointed to his post in 2015, [5] Mozilla board member Julie Hanna and Helen Greiner (co-founder of iRobot Corporation). Hanna and Greiner were two of the five women who were named ambassadors of PAGE at the time. [6]
In 2018, Inaugural PAGE member [7] and Chairman and CEO of Pinnacle Group, Nina Vaca had a day named after her in Houston, Texas due to her efforts in improving the Hispanic and immigrant community[ clarification needed ] in Texas. [8] [9]
Stephen T. Jurvetson is an American billionaire businessman and venture capitalist. Formerly a partner of the firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), he was an early investor in Hotmail, Memphis Meats, Mythic and Nervana Systems. He is currently a board member of SpaceX among others. He later co-founded the firm Future Ventures with Maryanna Saenko, who worked with him at DFJ.
Helen Greiner is a co-founder of iRobot and former CEO of CyPhy Work, Inc., a start-up company specializing in small multi-rotor drones for the consumer, commercial and military markets. Ms Greiner is currently the CEO of Tertill Corporation.
Richard Barton is an American internet entrepreneur who is the co-executive chairman and a former two-time chief executive officer of Zillow Group, a company he co-founded in 2006. Barton founded online travel company Expedia, Inc., real-estate internet company Zillow, and job search engine and career community Glassdoor. He also founded the online travel photography sharing website and app Trover, which was acquired by Expedia in 2016. Barton was also a venture partner at Benchmark, and is on the board of directors for Netflix, Avvo, Nextdoor, and Artsy. He serves on the Stanford University Board of Trustees.
Sarah Onyango Obama was a Kenyan educator and philanthropist. She was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, the paternal grandfather of U.S. president Barack Obama and helped raise his father, Barack Obama Sr. She was known by her short name as Sarah Obama and was sometimes referred to as Sarah Ogwel, Sarah Hussein Obama, or Sarah Anyango Obama. She lived in Nyang'oma Kogelo village, 48 km west of western Kenya's main city, Kisumu, on the edge of Lake Victoria.
Daymond Garfield John is an American businessman, investor, and television personality. He is best known as an investor on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank. As well as being the founder, president, and chief executive officer of FUBU, John is the founder of The Shark Group.
In his "A New Beginning" speech on June 4, 2009, at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt, President of the United States Barack Obama announced, "I will host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world". The Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, held in Washington, D.C., on Monday April 26, and Tuesday, April 27, 2010, at the Ronald Reagan Building, followed through on President Obama's commitment by highlighting the importance of social and economic entrepreneurship, and strengthening mutually-beneficial relationships with entrepreneurs in Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities around the world. At the second summit in Istanbul, Turkey, Vice President Joe Biden announced that the Presidential Summit would become the marquee event that kicks off Global Entrepreneurship Week each year, with the 2013 host being the United Arab Emirates.
In his "A New Beginning" speech on June 4, 2009, at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt, President of the United States Barack Obama stated "I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings." During the speech, he also committed to "host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world".
Edward John Davila is an American lawyer who serves as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He was previously a state court judge on the Santa Clara County Superior Court from 2001 to 2011.
Brian Joseph Chesky is an American businessman and industrial designer and the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. Chesky is the 355th richest person in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $7.8 billion, mostly due to his ownership of 67 million shares of Airbnb.
Daniel Lubetzky is an American billionaire businessman, philanthropist, author, and founder and executive chairman of snack company Kind LLC.
Nina Vaca is an Ecuadorian-born American entrepreneur. She is the chairperson and CEO of Pinnacle Group, a large provider of information technology and workforce solutions in US and Canada with around 5000 employees, which was named among the Fastest-Growing Women-Owned Business in the United States by the Women Presidents' Organization in 2018. The story of Nina Vaca and Pinnacle Group opens the Entrepreneur chapter of the McGraw-Hill textbook, "Understanding Business". Vaca was named one of the top 100 CEO’s in STEM publication by STEM connector.
Hamdi Ulukaya is a Turkish billionaire businessman, activist, philanthropist of Kurdish ethnicity and based in the United States. Ulukaya is the owner, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Chobani, the #1-selling strained yogurt brand in the US. He established production facilities first in upstate New York, and since then has expanded. According to Forbes, his net worth as of October 2022 is US$2.1 billion. On 26 April 2016, Ulukaya announced to his employees that he would be giving them 10% of the shares in Chobani.
Baybars Altuntaş is a Turkish entrepreneur, angel investor, speaker and author based in Istanbul. He founded Deulcom International, a vocational training school in Turkey in 1992 and currently serves as the president of the executive committee of the company. He is currently a jury member on the new Turkish entrepreneurship program and is the current host of the Turkish version of The Weakest Link, En Zayıf Halka
Carolyn "Carrie" Hessler-Radelet is the President & CEO of Global Communities. In 2017, she served as the President & CEO of Project Concern International (PCI), a San Diego–based international development and humanitarian assistance organization, and spearheaded the merger of the organization with the Silver Spring, Maryland–based Global Communities in 2020. Prior to leading PCI, Carrie was the 19th director of the Peace Corps, from 2014 to 2017. She was the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Peace Corps from April 2010 to December 2015, serving as Acting Peace Corps Director from September 2012 until June 2014 when she was elevated to Director. She resigned on January 20, 2017, to join Project Concern International (PCI) as its President & CEO.
Elizabeth Anne Holmes is an American biotechnology entrepreneur who was convicted of fraud in connection to her blood-testing company, Theranos. The company's valuation soared after it claimed to have revolutionized blood testing by developing methods that needed only very small volumes of blood, such as from a fingerprick. In 2015, Forbes had named Holmes the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the United States on the basis of a $9-billion valuation of her company. In the following year, as revelations of fraud about Theranos's claims began to surface, Forbes revised its estimate of Holmes's net worth to zero, and Fortune named her in its feature article on "The World's 19 Most Disappointing Leaders".
Women's Entrepreneurship Day (WED) is a day on which the work of women entrepreneurs is observed and discussed, held every day of each year. The inaugural event was held in New York City at the United Nations, with additional events being held simultaneously in several other countries. 144 nations overall recognized the first WED in 2014, which included the presentation of the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Awards. The organization behind WED also has an ambassadorship and fellowship program.
Julie Hanna is an Egyptian-born technologist, entrepreneur, investor and board director. She serves as Executive Chair of the Board of Kiva., peer-peer lending and crowdfunding pioneer. She is Special Advisor to X, Alphabet's Moonshot Factory and Venture Partner at Obvious Ventures.
Jane Wurwand is the founder of Dermalogica, an American personal care company.
The Global Entrepreneurship Summit is an annual event organized by the federal government of the United States, in partnership with foreign government hosts. The summit originated from an event organized by the Obama Administration called the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, which was held in April 2010 in Washington, D.C. It brought together entrepreneurs from the United States, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia to discuss the importance of social and economic entrepreneurship, establish entrepreneurship as an important area of policy focus, and strengthen mutually beneficial relationships between entrepreneurs.
Mikaila Ulmer is an American entrepreneur who started a lemonade business in Austin, Texas. Her lemonade is sold in over 1500 stores.