Yale and the Global Entrepreneurial Movement: Keynote by Kevin Ryan ‘85

Kevin Ryan ’85 delivered the keynote address at the Yale alumni association’s annual assembly on Nov. 13, 2014. The assembly focused on “The Entrepreneurial Spirit at Yale.” A trustee of Yale University, Ryan is a leading Internet entrepreneur, having founded and run New York–based businesses such as Business Insider, MongoDB, Zola and GILT. He helped build the online advertising firm DoubleClick from 1996 to 2005, leading it from being a 20-person start-up to a publicly traded global leader with over 1,500 employees. He is now chair of GILT, an e-commerce company launched in 2007 which today has millions of members and a wide variety of product lines.