Atlanta – If you haven’t yet registered, time is running out to sign up to attend ” Education, Entrepreneurship, and How Technology is Transforming the World by Transforming Both,” the Foundation’s Leadership Breakfast keynoted by PayPal co-founder Dr. Rod D. Martin, an education philanthropist, at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, February 22, 2012, at Cobb County’s Georgian Club.
Register online by Monday, February 20, at http://tinyurl.com/7ldaqnk. This Leadership Breakfast will cost $25 to attend.
Dr. Martin is a technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist, hedge fund manager and conservative activist especially noted for his role as a senior member of the startup team at PayPal.com. PayPal, the Silicon Valley legend that has become the dominant payments provider on the Internet, was launched during the dot-com bust by a team whose average age was just 23 and amassed more than 25 million users in about two years.
The company was the first dot-com to successfully transition its user base to a paying status through use of the “Freemium” model. It drove giant competitors such as Western Union, AOL and Citibank out of its market, conducted the first successful post-bust technology pure-play IPO, and merged with eBay for more than $1.5 billion in 2002. Moreover, PayPal enabled an entrepreneurial revolution, helping to create millions of small businesses around the world.
Dr. Martin, who was a senior advisor and Special Counsel to PayPal’s founder, is one of the many PayPal alumni who have launched more successful companies in a shorter time than those of almost any other company in history. Among those are YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Facebook, Geni, Yammer, Quantcast, Slide, Powerset, Palantir, Ironport, Xoom, Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
He is an active investor, director or officer in numerous ventures, specializing in the Internet and biotech spaces. In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Dr. Martin is widely recognized as America’s leading conservative expert on technology and politics. He is president of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies and was Policy Director for former Arkansas Governor (and Presidential candidate) Mike Huckabee. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Council for National Policy, which The New York Times called the “club of the most powerful,” a group of top conservative leaders in the nation. He and several colleagues from PayPal and Apple are involved in The Vanguard Project, which seeks to develop a state-of-the-art technology platform for driving and empowering large-scale conservative activism.
Dr. Martin studied political and economic thought at Cambridge University and was elected student body president at Baylor Law School. He has served as faculty for the Alliance Defense Fund’s Blackstone Fellowship program. He is a member of the Federalist Society, the Sons of the American Revolution (Gen. Joseph Martin Chapter, named for his fifth great grandfather) and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. He is deeply involved in charitable work aimed at alleviating global poverty, has raised significant sums for private K-12 scholarships for disadvantaged children in the United States, and serves on the boards of several charitable foundations, including Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY).
The deadline is Monday, February 20, to register at http://tinyurl.com/7ldaqnk. Media interested in attending please contact Benita Dodd at or 404-256-4050 . (Difficulty registering? Contact Benita Dodd.)
Who: Dr. Rod Martin
What: “Education, Entrepreneurship, and How Technology is Transforming the World by Transforming Both,” a Leadership Breakfast
When: 8 a.m., Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Where: The Georgian Club, 100 Galleria Parkway, Suite 1700, Atlanta, GA 30339
Directions: http://tinyurl.com/4cf9yy2
About the Georgia Public Policy Foundation: Established in 1991, the Foundation is an independent, state-based think tank that proposes practical, market-oriented approaches to public policy to improve the lives of Georgians. The Foundation’s regular events include Leadership Breakfasts and Policy Briefing Luncheons. Weekly publications are the Friday Facts and Friday Idea commentaries. Visit our Web site at www.georgiapolicy.org. Join The Forum at http://forum.georgiapolicy.org/. Become a fan of the Foundation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gppf.
