Academic Assistant, Department of Marketing at
Esade
Biography
Ken Morse has been a high-performance leader in global high-tech sales and sales management
for over 35 years.
Ken has co-founded six high-tech companies, together with MIT friends and classmates.
Five of these ventures had successful IPOs or mergers; one was a disaster. They included
3Com Corporation, Aspen Technology, Inc., a China Trade Company, a biotech venture,
and an expert systems company. Ken was either the CEO or responsible for part or all
of the sales organisation in each of these new enterprises. During his 4+ years as
Managing Director of AspenTech (AZPN) Europe SA/NV, Ken¿s team achieved 18 consecutive
quarters of on-target sales performance by building close strategic relationships
with the leading chemical and pharma companies throughout the region. He developed
the AspenTech EMEA organisation from 22 to 200+ employees, with basically zero staff
turnover, and expanded sales revenue 600%-900% with key client relationships.
Ken's interest in international high-tech ventures began at MIT, where he graduated
with a BS in Political Science in 1968, followed in 1972 with an MBA from Harvard
Business School. Upon graduation, he joined Schroders, the UK-based merchant bank,
where he worked directly for Jim Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank.
In 1975, Ken formed a trading advisory company under the aegis of Chase Manhattan
Bank to assist US technology-based companies such as IBM, General Motors, Gillette,
Hughes Aircraft, Mine Safety Appliances, Waters Associates and others to enter the
Chinese market. Ken was based in Beijing for five years during the latter half of
the Cultural Revolution. In 1980, he relocated to Silicon Valley as a founding member
of 3Com Corporation.
In the thirteen years that Ken served as Founding Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship
Center (1996-2009), the number of students taking Entrepreneurship Courses increased
from 220 to 1,600 per year while the number of professors rose from 3 to over 36.
Ken was named "Education All Star" by Mass High Tech magazine and is a member of the
MIT Enterprise Forum Global Board.
He was appointed to the recently-created National Advisory Council on Innovation &
Entrepreneurship by Secretary Locke and President Obama (Washington) and is a member
of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York City).
Ken is a member of the Telefónica Disruptive Council, Citi SFS Advisory Board, Barcelona
HiT: Hothouse of Innovation & Technology and the New Zealand GNS Science External
Expert Panel. He is also a Commercialisation Advisor to Scottish Enterprise.
Ken serves on the Board of Advisors of several ambitious start-ups including Denkwerk
GmbH in Germany; iMotions - Emotion Technology ApS and Zylinc A/S in Denmark; The
Little Engineer in Lebanon; Aifos Solutions SL, Indisys and Invenio in Spain; Izon
Science Ltd in New Zealand; Naseeb Networks and Sofizar in Pakistan; Dynasil Corporation
and several MIT spin-offs in the US, including Cogito, FloDesign Sonics, Inc., Terrafugia
and UkuMi.
Ken is Visiting Professor at ESADE Business School in Barcelona and holds a Chair
in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Competitiveness at Delft University of Technology
in The Netherlands.
He has been teaching Entrepreneurial Skills Development workshops in Europe, Lebanon,
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Québec and the US for over 8 years.
Ken speaks fluent French and some Chinese. He is a member of the Cercle Royal Gaulois
Artistique & Littéraire in Brussels. When he is not helping young companies to succeed,
Ken enjoys sailing his 50-year-old wooden boat with his family around Cape Cod.
He is in the early stages of writing a book on global entrepreneurs who built great
companies far from Silicon Valley and Route 128, whose working title is "Making it
Happen Globally".
Contact details
Tel: +34 932 806 162
Ext. 23520
Fax: +34 932 048 105