BEA Systems co-founder Coleman receives CU entrepreneur award
BOULDER — Bill Coleman, one of the founders of BEA Systems Inc., a California-based company that helps businesses become e-businesses, has been awarded the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Entrepreneur of the Year award.
The award is given every year to an individual who has had a substantial influence on or is the founder of a company and who has made an impact on the world of entrepreneurship, said Kathy Simon, director of CU’s Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, which sponsors the award.
?To be singled out as an entrepreneur of the year is quite an honor,? Coleman said. Coleman lived in Colorado between the ages of 12 and 22, when he graduated from the Air Force Academy, and he considers the state his home. He and his wife now have a home in California, where BEA Systems is based, and a second home in Aspen, he said.
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As he progressed through his life, Coleman said, he set a series of goals for himself. He set his first goal in sixth grade when he told his father he was going to graduate from the Air Force Academy.
Coleman reached another of those goals — running all software development for a Fortune 500 computer company by age 45 — by taking over software development at Sun Microsystems. Then, on a leave of absence, he decided he could never really retire because he enjoyed working, and he set more goals. ?I wanted to build a company that would endure as a leader in the computer industry, one that I could be involved with for as long as I could contribute,? he said.
Coleman also set a goal to become the chief executive of a $100 million company or the chief operating officer of a $1 billion company by the age of 50, which he accomplished with BEA Systems. Those goals met, Coleman wanted ?to take some of the money I make for the company and use it to help build a better world by funding the development and usage of computing technology for the learning impaired,? he said.
One of the ways in which Coleman fulfilled this goal was with a recent contribution of $250 million to CU to be used to fund advanced research and development of technologies to improve the lives of people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.
Coleman came to CU earlier this month to accept his award. His visit also included roundtable discussions with undergraduate and graduate business and engineering students, said Kathy Simon, director of CU’s Deming Center. The graduate students are considering using his visit as a launching pad for a case study on Coleman, she added. Contact Amy Stogner at (303) 440-4950 or e-mail astogner@bcbr.com.
BOULDER — Bill Coleman, one of the founders of BEA Systems Inc., a California-based company that helps businesses become e-businesses, has been awarded the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Entrepreneur of the Year award.
The award is given every year to an individual who has had a substantial influence on or is the founder of a company and who has made an impact on the world of entrepreneurship, said Kathy Simon, director of CU’s Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, which sponsors the award.
?To be singled out as an entrepreneur of the year is quite an honor,? Coleman…
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