David Roberts
Biography
David Roberts is passionate about transforming the lives of a billion suffering people in the world through disruptive technological innovation. He is an M.I.T. and Harvard educated, award-winning CEO and serial entrepreneur. He is also a former Special Agent, decorated military officer, and career officer in the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. He is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on disruptive innovation in government and technology entrepreneurship.
David is currently Director of the Graduate Studies Program (GSP) at Singularity University. He was the GSP Director in 2012, the Faculty Director for Team Projects, Advisors, and Teaching Fellows in 2011, and is a GSP alum and elected class representative from 2010.
As a serial high-tech, award-winning CEO and entrepreneur, David has started ventures backed with over $100 million of investment from Kleiner Perkins, Vinod Khosla, Cisco, Oracle, Accenture, In-Q-Tel and others. He has led pioneering start ups that span multiple industries in cloud-based software, education, healthcare, governance, risk management, and compliance.
After working briefly as an Investment Banker in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Goldman Sachs, New York he returned to serve the public as a government officer. David was the Distinguished Graduate of his government class and grew to Special Assistant to the Director of the largest single intelligence program in the U.S. budget.
David has led the development of some of the most complex, state-of-the art systems ever built to include space based satellite systems, unmanned air vehicle systems, and analytical fusion centers. He later led elite operational teams and continues to serve on U.S. Air Force Reserve status as a Mission Commander.
David began his government career as a military Special Agent and is the recipient of numerous awards and medals beginning early in his career with a personal citation from the Director of the FBI at age 23 for the arrest, and conviction of six international terrorists and illegal arms dealers.
David holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and is a Distinguished Graduate at M.I.T. with a B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering and a major in Artificial Intelligence and Bio-Computer Engineering.
Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley’s Business schools have all written and taught case studies on David’s leadership, management, and decision making. He has been featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal, and in USA Today, Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, Business Week, CNN, Business 2.0, Harvard’s Entrepreneurship Journal, PC World and dozens of others.
David and his startups have received dozens of awards to include Internet World’s Net Rising Stars, Red Herring’s Catch, top 50 Private Companies in the World, Red Herring Top 100 Private Companies in the World, USA Today’s Tech Reviews Best Picks, Internet Outlook’s Investors Choice Award, Enterprise Outlook Investors Choice, Best of the Web from PC World, and Apple Computer’s Premier Systems Integrator Award.
His fascination with technology began In fourth grade after building a hovering electric drone, to carry his younger sister to the bus stop, powered by what was formerly his mother’s vacuum cleaner, and fortunately limited by the length of an electric power cord.
