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Howard Tullman
Executive Director, Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship at Illinois Institute of Technology
It started with a computer course Howard Tullman took at the Illinois Institute of Technology, in 1963 while he was still in high school. Now Tullman has come home as executive director of the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship—the brand-new institute within Illinois Tech. Known for his style of “disruptive innovation,” working with IIT students on innovative ideas in tech is an ideal fit. “IIT has hundreds of graduates each year who are the first in their families to go to college, and unlike grads from other schools they are very interested in staying and working in Chicago, not [leaving for] the West Coast,” Tullman says. “This represents a huge opportunity for tech companies and startups in the city, since it’s a key resource right in our own backyard.”