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Len Jessup @lenjessup

Two-time university president, two-time business school dean, and long time professor of tech and entrepreneurship.

Joined April 2009
  • Tweets 1,256
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145 Photos and videos
Check out my latest article: Innovation is a Team Sport linkedin.com/pulse/innovatio… via @LinkedIn

Innovation is a Team Sport

Most people notice innovation when a startup raises capital, launches a product, or gets acquired. What they often don’t see is the infrastructure that made that success possible years earlier.

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Check out my latest article: My New Job as an Air Traffic Controller linkedin.com/pulse/my-new-jo… via @LinkedIn

My New Job as an Air Traffic Controller

People often ask what venture capitalists do all day. Some days it’s fundraising.

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Check out my latest article: MIS Was Built For This Moment linkedin.com/pulse/mis-built… via @LinkedIn

MIS Was Built For This Moment

For years, Management Information Systems (MIS) occupied an unusual place inside universities. Too business-oriented for computer science.

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Check out my latest article: What We've Learned Building a Venture Fund in Las Vegas linkedin.com/pulse/what-weve… via @LinkedIn

What We've Learned Building a Venture Fund in Las Vegas

We are approaching the closing of fundraising for Desert Forge Ventures Fund I. This is a meaningful milestone, and more than anything, it’s a good time to reflect on all of this as a learning...

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Check out my latest article: What a Research University Can Do for a City linkedin.com/pulse/what-rese… via @LinkedIn

What a Research University Can Do for a City

There’s a lot of debate right now about higher education in terms of cost, value, relevance. Fair enough.

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Len Jessup retweeted
Coach Josh Pastner@CoachJPastner
Apr 29
RUNNIN’ REBELS!!!!!
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Check out my latest article: Spring Conversations on AI & Entrepreneurship linkedin.com/pulse/spring-co… via @LinkedIn

Spring Conversations on AI & Entrepreneurship

It’s been a busy, and energizing, spring season filled with inspiring conversations. From a keynote at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, to a session with Everspring and AACSB, moderating a NAIOP...

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Check out my latest article: Turning 65 and Rethinking Leadership linkedin.com/pulse/turning-6… via @LinkedIn

Turning 65 and Rethinking Leadership

I turned 65 yesterday, and it made me think about leadership in a different way. For most of my career, leadership was about forward motion, building, fixing, creating momentum.

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Check out my latest article: The Goal I Set When I Turned 60 linkedin.com/pulse/goal-i-se… via @LinkedIn

The Goal I Set When I Turned 60

When I turned 60, I thought I was taking reasonably good care of myself. I had just come off the wear and tear of the UNLV presidency and moved to Claremont.

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Check out my latest article: Why I'm Not Slowing Down linkedin.com/pulse/why-im-sl… via @LinkedIn

Why I'm Not Slowing Down

There’s an assumption that as you move into your sixties, life begins to narrow. You wind things down.

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Check out my latest article: Building a Portfolio Around Foundational Infrastructure linkedin.com/pulse/building-… via @LinkedIn

Building a Portfolio Around Foundational Infrastructure

Over the past year, we’ve been intentionally building the first portfolio at Desert Forge Ventures around a simple conviction: The next decade of venture value creation will be driven by foundational...

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Check out my latest article: The Flywheel Is Starting to Turn in Las Vegas linkedin.com/pulse/flywheel-… via @LinkedIn

The Flywheel Is Starting to Turn in Las Vegas

Innovation ecosystems rarely arrive all at once. They develop slowly, often quietly, until one day you begin to notice that something is changing.

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Check out my latest article: Quiet Milestones linkedin.com/pulse/quiet-mil… via @LinkedIn

Quiet Milestones

About eight or nine months ago we began fundraising for Desert Forge Ventures, with our intent to build something that was needed in our region. A venture capital fund by, of, and for Las Vegas.

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Check out my latest article: AI as Infrastructure Revolution linkedin.com/pulse/ai-infras… via @LinkedIn

AI as Infrastructure Revolution

AI Isn’t just a Software Revolution. It’s an Infrastructure Revolution.

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Check out my latest article: The Lesson From Cherry Creek: Thinking Big About Vegas Tech linkedin.com/pulse/lesson-fr… via @LinkedIn

The Lesson From Cherry Creek: Thinking Big About Vegas Tech

About a decade ago, when I was President of University of Nevada-Las Vegas, we launched something that many people in Las Vegas didn’t fully understand at the time. But looking back, I believe it was...

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Check out my latest article: The Investor Who Loaned His Ferrari linkedin.com/pulse/investor-… via @LinkedIn

The Investor Who Loaned His Ferrari

This week, a prospective investor told me they genuinely loved what we’re building with Desert Forge Ventures, supporting Las Vegas founders and helping grow a stronger innovation economy here. But...

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Check out my latest article: What I Got Wrong About "Retirement" linkedin.com/pulse/what-i-go… via @LinkedIn

What I Got Wrong About "Retirement"

When I stepped away from higher education administration, I assumed I would gain control again of my life. That part turned out to be true.

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Check out my latest article: Desert Forge Ventures Turns One linkedin.com/pulse/desert-fo… via @LinkedIn

Desert Forge Ventures Turns One

Desert Forge Ventures Turns One: Reflections on Building Something That Matters Just about a year ago, Desert Forge Ventures officially came to life. But, as with most things that are worth building,...

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Check out my latest article: Why Well-Being Is More Than Self-Care linkedin.com/pulse/why-well-… via @LinkedIn

Why Well-Being Is More Than Self-Care

Self-care matters. Rest, boundaries, exercise, nutrition, and mental health support are important…and for many people, overdue.

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Check out my latest article: New Year Momentum: When the Work Starts to Compound linkedin.com/pulse/new-year-… via @LinkedIn

New Year Momentum: When the Work Starts to Compound

Through the holidays, I tried something a little different. Instead of my usual Monday essay, I posted a few short videos.

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