Entrepreneur-in-Residence Presentation on October 18
The College of Business will host Greg Ruff, founder of White Space Strategy, as the
fall Entrepreneur-in-Residence, October 15-19, 2012. On Thursday, October 18, he will
present “Heartland Entrepreneuring: Creating and Growing Heartland Businesses” in
Reid 108 at 5:00 p.m., on the Bozeman campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Ruff will also visit business classes throughout the week and meet with students in
the entrepreneurship program.
Greg’s presentation will answer key questions about starting and building new businesses in America’s Heartland including: Why start a new business now? Why here? What do new businesses mean for the Montana economy and for me? Is there a real opportunity outside Silicon Valley and what are their secrets? What is a White Space market opportunity and why should I care? and, “How do I grow my current business today?
Greg has worked with a number of Montana businesses as well as the TechRanch start-up incubator while the bulk of his practice has been in Silicon Valley. He’s now turning his attention from high-tech to the heartland and has coined the term “Heartland Entrepreneuring” to reflect to opportunities for business growth and new business start-ups outside the metropolitan areas of America.
He is the founder of White Space Strategy, a market and business strategy consulting firm that has provided counsel to more than 200 client organizations since 1996. Prior to that, he built consulting practices for several leading firms in the Silicon Valley. He has been consulting for high-tech companies and industry leaders since 1987 when he joined Booz & Co. a leading worldwide consultancy after 13 years in sales and marketing management at HP. His clients have included American Express, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Adobe, Oracle and Apple as well as hundreds of start-ups and new businesses in a broad range of industries.
Ruff earned a B.S.E.E from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A in international management and finance from New York University. He has written numerous articles for industry organizations such as Dealmaker Media and The Chasm Group and has spoken about Web 2.0, 3.0, entrepreneuring and new market creation at events such as the Web 2.0 Expo and Summit, and Office 2.0. He has guest lectured at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, Santa Clara University and been a judge and mentor for companies presenting at the International Business Plan Competition at the University of San Francisco (USF).
