Randall Kaplan is a

serial 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 ...

. He is a co-founder of

Akamai Technologies Akamai Technologies, Inc. is an American content delivery networkJ. Dilley, B. Maggs, J. Parikh, H. Prokop, R. Sitaraman, and B. Weihl. (CDN), cybersecurity, and cloud service company, providing web and Internet security services. Akamai's Inte ...

. Kaplan is the managing partner of JUMP Investors, a Los Angeles-based

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

and

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

firm.

Early life and education

Kaplan grew up in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. After graduation, Kaplan received a J.D. from the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Kaplan is on the Northwestern Law Board. He received the school's first Distinguished Entrepreneur Award in 2006.

Career

In 1996, Kaplan was hired as a chairman assistant at SunAmerica, working with

Eli Broad Eli Broad ( ; June 6, 1933April 30, 2021) was an American businessman and philanthropist. In June 2019, ''Forbes'' ranked him as the 233rd-wealthiest person in the world and the 78th-wealthiest in the United States, with an estimated net worth of ...

. In August 1998, Kaplan left SunAmerica to start Akamai Technologies with Tom Leighton, Daniel Lewin, and Jonathan Seelig. After leaving Akamai, Kaplan started JUMP Investors, a Los Angeles-based venture capital and private equity firm. Kaplan, also known as "Mr. Beach," is currently the CEO and founder o
Sandee
a travel start-up. Mr. Beach is known for his annual
Top 50 Beaches in the United States
' list that features the best beaches that the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

has to offer. Sandee has been recognized by outlets such as the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

Entrepreneur (magazine) ''Entrepreneur'' is an American magazine and website that carries news stories about entrepreneurship, small business management, and business. The magazine was first published in 1977. It is published by ''Entrepreneur Media Inc''., headquartere ...

Maxim (magazine) ''Maxim'' is an international men's magazine, devised and launched in the UK in 1995, but based in New York City since 1997, and prominent for its photography of actors, singers, and female models whose careers are at a current peak. ''Maxim' ...

Coveteur

Skift Skift is a travel industry news site. Skift also provides market research and marketing services to the travel industry. Skift was founded in 2012 by Rafat Ali and Jason Clampet. The name Skift, which means "shift" or "transformation" in Nordic ...

InsideHook
The Malaysian Reserve, and the

San Diego Union Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

. Kaplan is also the owner and CEO of CollarCard, LLC, a promotional products company.

Philanthropy

In 1996, Kaplan started The Justice Ball, whose beneficiary is Bet Tzedek Legal Services. Kaplan is also the co-founder and current co-chair of The Imagine Ball, an annual charity concert whose proceeds benefit Imagine LA, a non-profit specializing in homelessness and poverty in LA. Kaplan established the Julia Eder Dean's Scholarship at the University of Michigan in honor of his grandmother. Kaplan has also endowed a permanent full-tuition, need-based scholarship at the University of Michigan.

Assault case against Gimelstob

In November 2018, Kaplan was publicly assaulted by

Justin Gimelstob Justin Jeremy Gimelstob (born January 26, 1977) is a retired American tennis player. Gimelstob has been a resident of Morristown, New Jersey, and as of 2009 lived in Santa Monica, California. He was the top-ranked boy in his age group at the ag ...

in the presence of the former's wife and two-year-old daughter. Gilmelstob later pleaded "no contest" to a felony battery charge, and was sentenced to three years’ probation and 60 days of community labor. Kaplan's wife attributed the miscarriage of her unborn child to the stress of witnessing the attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Randall Living people American venture capitalists University of Michigan alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Akamai Technologies people