Andrew Perlman (born June 19, 1975) is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

who has co-founded nine venture-backed companies in the telecom, high-tech, pharmaceuticals, energy, water, and biotechnology industries. He is currently General Partner of GreatPoint Ventures,Bloomber

''Bloomberg'', May 14, 2015 and the former chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of GreatPoint Energy, a company based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

which develops technology to produce clean natural gas from coal. Perlman has been featured on the

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

’s list of the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35"35 Innovators Under 35"
''MIT Technology Review'', 2009 and

Crain’s Chicago Business ''Crain's Chicago Business'' is a weekly business newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, IL. It is owned by Detroit-based Crain Communications Inc., Crain Communications, a privately held publishing company with more than 30 magazines, including ''Adve ...

’s list of 40 leaders under 40 in Chicago.Daniels, Stev
“Andrew Perlman”
''40 Under 40: 2012'', 2012 Perlman and GreatPoint Energy have been profiled by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'',Kolodny, Lor
"Bluer Skies for Shanghai?"
''Wall Street Journal Venture Capital Dispatch'', February 20, 2012

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

,Shogren, Elizabet
"Turning Dirty Coal into Clean Energy"
''NPR'', April 25, 2006

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

,Fisher, Danie
“$100 Oil? We Love It”
''Forbes'', October 13, 2007 and

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

Early life

Perlman was born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and grew up in the cities of

Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film * Newton ( ...

and Cohassett in Massachusetts. At age 12, he began tracking down the owners of dormant bank accounts, and taking a 20% commission in exchange for leading them to their forgotten money.Reeves, Richar
"The New Wealth"
, ''CNN Money'', October 10, 1997 Later in his youth, he applied for a federal license to construct an ethanol still in his parents’ house, though he was unsuccessful. Perlman began college at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, and as a sophomore he attempted to license and commercialize a university-owned technology to prevent credit card fraud.Daniels, Stev
"A Chicago company brings power to the People's Republic"
''Crain's Chicago Business'', September 12, 2012 The university declined the request because he was still a student, so Perlman dropped out.

Early career

Perlman and a friend dropped out of Washington University and moved to

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

, where they “hung around business and government offices, knocking on doors, asking anyone they could find about some kind of new technology they could turn into a business.” The two had little technical education, but through research and trial and error, they built a device that converts voice calls into a data format. By age 22, they signed a deal for the first $14 million in startup financing for their new company Cignal Global Communications. Three years later, Perlman sold the company for $200 million.

Previous companies

Perlman went on to “launch five successful startups before he turned 30.” On its list of the world’s top 35 innovators under 35, the MIT Technology Review cites Perlman’s former project GreatPoint Energy as well as other disruptive technology ventures in important areas: “cheaper desalination plants, anti-obesity medicines, drugs that fight diseases of old age, and rocesses for converting garbage into biofuel and generating electricity from geothermal energy” Perlman is on the board of directors for Jetti Resources, which recently appointed mining veteran

Chip Goodyear Charles Waterhouse "Chip" Goodyear IV (born January 18, 1958) is an American businessman and the former CEO of BHP Billiton. He is a member of the Goodyear family that had extensive business interests in lumber and railways, as well as signific ...

to its board.

References

External links

GreatPoint Energy official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlman, Andrew 1975 births Living people American chairpersons of corporations American technology chief executives American technology company founders Businesspeople from Chicago American chief technology officers