Dr. Ned Godshall, successful high-tech entrepreneur, will talk with students at a free lunch and seminar on Friday, Dec. 14, from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. in The Anderson School’s GSM 302. Godshall will speak as part of the UNM Technology Business Plan Competition events on “Lessons from the Front: One Entrepreneur’s Experience with Business Planning.”
Photo: Dr. Ned Godshall
The UNM Technology Business Plan Competition seeks to involve students from across campus in partnering to create viable business plans and compete for more than $100,000 in prizes and seed funding.
Overseen by The Anderson School Endowed Chair in Economic Development, Dr. Sul Kassicieh, this year’s competition will take place on Friday, April 11, 2008, and a series of speakers will be brought to campus to share their experiences with students beforehand.
Open to all UNM students taking at least six credit hours in the Fall 2007 or Spring 2008 semesters, the competition fosters economic development within New Mexico by supporting students in generating sound, innovative business plans.
Godshall, president and chief executive officer of Altela, Inc., has founded and led four high-tech start-up companies since 1995. At these companies, Godshall negotiated seed-round financing with venture capital firms and established the company’s accounting, payroll, budgeting, tax, project management, and corporate legal systems. He is one of New Mexico’s first ‘serial entrepreneurs.’
Godshall’s most recent efforts have been with companies in the ‘clean-tech’ space: the hydrogen economy (MesoFuel, Inc.), photovoltaic solar cells (Advent Solar, Inc.), and water desalination (Altela, Inc.).
MesoFuel developed a new product that enables widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells to facilitate tomorrow’s hydrogen economy dream – environmentally-friendly non-polluting fuel and greater energy independence from foreign oil. MesoFuel was sold to an international company less than two years after Godshall founded the company in 2002.
Advent Solar completed two successful rounds of venture capital investment totaling $38 million during his tenure as Board Chairman.
Godshall’s most recent start-up company, Altela, is developing a new kind of low-cost water desalination technology which removes the high costs and environmental liability of dirty water disposal.
Godshall’s first company, Silicon MicroDevices, Inc., established several patents for a new method of transdermal drug delivery using microsystems technology.
Prior to founding his first company, he was a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, where he co-initiated Sandia’s highly successful MicroSystems program.
Godshall has Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of New Mexico.
Friday's event is open and everyone is welcome to attend. More information can be found at Tech Business Plan or by writing to bizplan@mgt.unm.edu.
Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at December 10, 2007 04:04 PM