Jim Kitchen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | August 15, 1964 |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur and professor |
| Known for | First person to travel to all 193 United Nations recognized countries and to space |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School |
Jim Kitchen (born August 15, 1964) is an American entrepreneur and professor. He is the first person to travel to all 193 United Nations recognized countries and to space. [1] [2]
Jim Kitchen started his first business in 1985, a marketing business, and promoted low Earth orbit space trips. [3] Afterwards, he started an international tour business as well as several other companies [4] He was instrumental in developing Chapel Hill’s entrepreneurship eco-system, [5] opening up accelerator Launch Chapel Hill and student incubator 1789 Venture Lab. [6]
Kitchen began teaching Entrepreneurship at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in 2010. [7] The central theme of Kitchen’s course is teaching students to create profits with a purpose. [8] In his course students learn entrepreneurial principles by starting small businesses where profits are donated to non-profits, including Make a Wish [9] and other charities. [10] Kitchen’s classes have given away multiple cars to people transitioning out of homelessness. [11] [12]
Kitchen began traveling internationally in high school and over the past 30 years has visited all 193 countries recognized by the United Nations. [13] [14] He visited his 193rd country, Syria, in 2019. [15] Kitchen is a member of the Travelers' Century Club, recognized as a Gold Member for visiting 100 or more countries. [16]
On March 14, 2022, Blue Origin announced that Jim Kitchen would be a member of the NS-20 mission. [17] Pete Davidson was scheduled to be a crew member on this launch, however Davidson changed his mind. Gary Lai, the chief architect of the New Shepard rocket system replaced Pete Davidson on this space flight. On March 31, 2022, Kitchen became the first person to travel to all 193 U.N. recognized countries and go to space. [18] [19] Several news outlets referred to him as the “Modern Day Marco Polo” who went to space. [20]
On July 5th, 2022, Kitchen traveled in the deep diving submersible Limiting Factor to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean to depths between 10,925 - 10,935 meters (35,843ft - 35,875ft). [21] The trench is located approximately 210 nautical miles to the southwest of Guam. [22]
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is the flagship of the University of North Carolina system. After being chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795, making it one of the oldest public universities in the United States.
Margaret M. LaMontagne Spellings is an American government and non-profit executive who has been serving as President and CEO of Texas 2036 since 2019. She previously served as the eighth United States secretary of education from 2005 to 2009. After leaving the government, Spellings served as president of the University of North Carolina System, overseeing the seventeen campus system from 2016 to 2019. In June 2023, Spellings was named the new CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
The Confederate Monument, University of North Carolina, commonly known as Silent Sam, is a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier by Canadian sculptor John A. Wilson, which once stood on McCorkle Place of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) from 1913 until it was pulled down by protestors on August 20, 2018. Its former location has been described as "the front door" of the university and "a position of honor".
The UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School is the business school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Founded in 1919, the school was renamed to its current name in 1991 in honor of Mary Lily Kenan and her husband, Henry Flagler.
WCHL is a commercial AM radio station in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is owned by the Chapel Hill Media Group and it has a format of news, talk, sports and adult album alternative music. It is a network affiliate of CBS News Radio. Much of its programming is geared towards the Chapel Hill/Carrboro community, with a focus on local news and community-affairs programming. The studios are on South Estes Drive in Chapel Hill.
John D. Kasarda is an American academic and airport business consultant focused on aviation-driven economic development. He is a faculty member at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, the CEO of Aerotropolis Business Concepts LLC and the President of the Aerotropolis Institute in China. He was the founding editor-in-chief of Logistics, an open-access journal published by MDPI. Kasarda is often referred to as "father of the aerotropolis".
Herbert Holden Thorp is an American chemist, professor and entrepreneur. He is a professor of chemistry at George Washington University. He was the tenth chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, assuming the position on July 1, 2008, succeeding James Moeser, and, at age 43, was noted as being among the youngest leaders of a university in the United States. At the time of his selection as chancellor, Thorp was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a Kenan Professor of chemistry at the university. Thorp is a 1986 graduate of UNC; he later earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from California Institute of Technology, and was a postdoctoral associate at Yale University.
The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media is a nationally accredited professional undergraduate and graduate level journalism school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The school, founded in 1950, is ranked competitively among the best journalism schools in the United States. The school offers undergraduate degrees in media & journalism as well as advertising & public relations. It offers master's degrees in journalism, strategic communication, and visual communication and doctoral degrees in media & communication.
On the morning of March 5, 2008, Eve Marie Carson was shot and killed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States where she was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Over 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students live in campus housing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during a regular school year. Forty residence halls are grouped into 16 residential communities across campus.
The North Carolina Science Festival (NCSF) is a month-long, yearly celebration encompassing hundreds of events throughout the state of North Carolina. The festival is organized by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus with the goal of highlighting the educational, cultural and economic impact of science in the state. NCSF events include hands-on activities, talks, lab tours, exhibits and performances for all ages. The event has grown into the largest science festival in the world.
Buck Goldstein is the Entrepreneur in Residence and Professor of Practice in the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the co-author, with Holden Thorp, of two books: Engines of Innovation – The Entrepreneurial University in the 21st Century, in which they contend that the world’s biggest problems can be effectively addressed by large research universities through a combination of skillful innovation and execution; and Our Higher Calling—Rebuilding the Partnership Between America and its Colleges and Universities in which they contend that the informal compact between American higher education and the public is broken and must be restored. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Information Industry Association and Information America, the company he co-founded, has appeared numerous times on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.
Jim Clifton is the chairman of Gallup, a global analytics and advice firm. Clifton served as the CEO of Gallup from 1988 until 2022, and is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller It's the Manager, the bestseller Born to Build, The Coming Jobs War, and writes The Chairman's Blog. He is the creator of the behavioral economic framework, “The Gallup Microeconomic Path,” a metric-based economic model that establishes the linkages among human nature in the workplace, customer engagement and business outcomes, which is used by over 500 companies worldwide. His father was psychologist, educator, and author Dr. Donald O. Clifton, who founded of Selection Research, Inc. (SRI). Under Jim's leadership, SRI acquired the Gallup Organization in 1988.
Douglas A. Shackelford is an American professor and academic administrator. He served as the dean of the Kenan–Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill until September of 2022, where he is also the Meade H. Willis Distinguished Professor of Taxation.
Richard A. Bettis is the Ellison Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is known for his work on corporate strategy, global business strategy and strategic management. He is a former president of the Strategic Management Society and was the Co-Editor of Strategic Management Journal from 2007-2015.
Pamela Somers Hemminger is an American politician serving as mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, since December 2, 2015. The owner of a small real-estate company, Hemminger previously served on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board of education and the Orange County Board of County Commissioners. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
James Warren Dean Jr. is the current president of the University of New Hampshire since June 30, 2018. Dean earned his Ph.D. and master’s degrees in organizational behavior from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Catholic University Of America.
Nelson Ferebee Taylor was an American lawyer and educational administrator who served as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1972 to 1980.
Denis Simon is an American professor and academic administrator. He most recently served as Clinical Professor of Global Business and Technology at the Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also served as the Director of the Corporate Partner Program at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC.