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The origins of IGNITE Innovations lie in a Stanford graduate course, ‘Social Entrepreneurship Start-Up’ in Spring 2003. Inspired by the work of the Light Up the World Foundation, a mix of MBA and engineering school students worked on designing solutions to replace kerosene lighting. At the end of the course, several members felt compelled to continue. After visiting India during the summer, the group incorporated IGNITE Innovations and after securing some early stage investors, are beginning manufacturing in India    

IGNITE Leadership


Darren Johnston


Sally Madsen


Matt Scott


Cory Shaffhausen

     
 
Executive Board

James Patell is the Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management at Stanford Business School and Co-director of the Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing(AIM).

Charlie Gay is Chairman of the Board of Advisors for SunPower Corporation, former President of Siemens Solar Industries and former Director of Department of Energy ’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Board of Advisors


Mason Byles is a former executive at Hewlett Packard with experience of manufacturing in India.

Elliot Grant is Director of Operations at Portola Packaging, a global manufacturer of plastic closures

David Green is an Ashoka fellow and Executive Director of Project Impact with over 10 years of experience bringing new technology to the developing world.

Ron Grubman was a co-founder and CEO of several high tech startups. He has also been an attorney since 1974, and is now "Of-Counsel" to the law firm of LaRiviere, Grubman and Payne.

David Kelley is the founder of IDEO, America's largest independent product design and development firm and a tenured professor in Stanford University's Product Design program.

Vinod Khosla is a General Partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, founding CEO of Sun Microsystems and a lead investor in IGNITE.

Randy Komisar is partnering with IGNITE to help us turn our vision into reality. Randy is a former CEO of several companies and also lectures on entrepreneurship at Stanford.

Kurt Kuhlmann is CTO of LRI and a former Principal Engineer for Microchip Corp. with extensive experience in analog circuits and embedded control applications. Kurt is also a founder of Meridian design, makers of portable UV-C water purification systems.

Todd Johnson is a Partner at Jones Day Menlo Park.

Syed Shariq represents the Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory at Stanford University.

Anna Sidana is CEO of Global Upside and has significant management and operational experience in product strategy and award-winning marketing. Her experience spans companies such as Netscape, eTime Capital, IBM, Visa and Ernst & Young.