Robin Chase is an American transportation entrepreneur. She is co-founder and former CEO of

Zipcar Zipcar is an American car-sharing company and a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group. Zipcar provides vehicle reservations to its members, billable by the minute, hour or day; members may have to pay a monthly or annual membership fee in addition to ...

. She is also the founder and former CEO of Buzzcar, a peer-to-peer car-sharing service, acquired b
Drivy
She also started the defunct GoLoco.org, a

vehicle for hire A vehicle for hire is a vehicle providing private transport or shared transport for a fee, in which passengers are generally free to choose their points or approximate points of origin and destination, unlike public transport, and which they ...

company. She is co-founder and executive chairman of

Veniam Veniam was a technology startup focused on building large WiFi mesh networks using moving vehicles like city buses or taxis. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California and was founded in 2012. The Company received 4.9 million doll ...

, a vehicle network communications company. She authored the book,
Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
'.

Early life

Chase spent her childhood in the Middle East and graduated from

Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa (WKUWCSA), one of 18 international schools and colleges in the UWC educational movement, is located in Mbabane, Eswatini.. Waterford was the first school in southern Africa open to chi ...

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

(B.A.), and the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, ...

(M.B.A.), and won a Loeb Fellowship at the

Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...

Career

In 2000, Chase co-founded Zipcar with Antje Danielson. In January 2001, Chase fired Danielson after she petitioned Zipcar's board for the ability to make hiring and firing decisions without consulting them. In February 2003, after difficulties in securing additional rounds of funding, Chase was replaced as CEO by the Zipcar board with

Scott Griffith Scott Griffith was the chairman and chief executive officer of Zipcar, Inc. from February 2003 until his resignation on March 15, 2013, following the acquisition of Zipcar by Avis Budget Group. As of October 2020, Griffith is the CEO of Ford Autono ...

. In addition to Veniam, Chase is currently a board member for the

World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. WRI's activities are focused on seven areas: food, fore ...

, and chairperson of the board for the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

and TSE listed

Tucows Tucows Inc. is an American-Canadian publicly traded Internet services and telecommunications company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and incorporated in Pennsylvania, United States. The company is composed of three independent business ...

Inc. Formerly, she served on the board of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, was a member of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

's Transportation Council, a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the

US Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

Intelligent Transportation Systems Program Advisory Committee, the Boston Mayor's Wireless Task Force,Boston Mayor's Wireless Task Force membership
/ref> and Governor

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who ...

's Transportation Transition Team. She has appeared in national media such as the ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was ...

'', ''The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'',

National Public Radio 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 n ...

, ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'', ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazines, and has been mentioned in several books on entrepreneurship. Chase is a proponent for the creation of a mesh network so that end-user devices can create a shared wireless network. She is a proponent of expanding internet access, and participated in the InternetforEveryone kick-off event.

Awards

Chase has won several awards. She was listed as one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2009, received the Massachusetts Governor's Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit, Start-up Woman of the Year, ''

Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

’s'' top 10 designers, ''

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 ...

's'' Fast 50 Champions of Innovation, technology and innovation awards from ''Fortune'', ''CIO'', and ''

InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...

'' magazines, and numerous environmental awards from national, state and local governments and organizations.

References

External links

Wired interview by David Weinberger

Visionaries: Zipcar Founder Sees Success In Sharing
* *
TED Talks: Robin Chase on Zipcar and her next big idea (TED2007)

Internet for Everyone Kickoff

Profile from Technology Review

Chasing away urban congestion

On the go with a Transportation Entrepreneur

The future of the car

Zipcar Founder Tells How GoLoco Will Make Carpooling Hip, Too

Robin Chase
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Robin Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Businesspeople from Cambridge, Massachusetts MIT Sloan School of Management alumni Wellesley College alumni Harvard University people Waterford Kamhlaba alumni People educated at a United World College American technology chief executives American computer businesspeople American technology company founders American women company founders American transportation businesspeople American chairpersons of corporations American corporate directors 21st-century American businesspeople American Internet company founders 21st-century American women