To the Faculty, Staff, and Students of Illinois Institute of Technology:
Today I’m happy to announce that Chicago entrepreneur and former 1871 chief executive officer Howard A. Tullman is the first executive director of the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship.
Tullman will officially begin as executive director on May 1 and will be responsible for leading the Kaplan Institute to achieve the following goals:
ensuring that all undergraduate students acquire superior innovation and entrepreneurship skills and experience;
building strong partnerships with external organizations and entrepreneurs;
helping recruit creative students interested in STEAM fields; and
providing the tools and skills students need to solve complex and significant challenges.
With multiple successful startups to his name, Tullman is uniquely positioned to launch another center of innovation and entrepreneurship in Chicago focused on supporting and empowering students about to enter or re-enter the working world. Over the past 50 years, he has successfully founded more than a dozen high-tech companies.
Most recently, he led Chicago-based 1871, which was just named the top university-affiliated business incubator in the world. He is also general managing partner of Chicago High Tech Investment Partners and G2T3V, LLC, both Chicago-based early-stage venture capital funds.
Before serving at 1871, Tullman most recently was the chairman and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint College, which he co-founded in 2007. The former president of Kendall College and the former chairman and CEO of Experiencia, Inc., Tullman is also a member of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ChicagoNEXT council, the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Cultural Advisory Council, the Illinois Arts Council, and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s New Media Council.
Tullman is a graduate with honors of Northwestern University (B.A., 1967) and of its School of Law (J.D., 1970), where he also graduated with honors.
He will serve as the keynote speaker for Illinois Tech’s 2017–18 Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 12.
Alan W. Cramb
President, Illinois Institute of Technology
President, Illinois Institute of Technology
