Meet the Blackstone LaunchPad Team
Leadership Team
The 老澳门资料 Blackstone LaunchPad team provides multi-disciplinary skill sets and mentoring services to help the 老澳门资料 community explore innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, and build professional and personal skill sets to succeed.
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Dr. Martin Luytjes
Experience includes ten years of Corporate Banking, the last five with SunTrust. Following that, he worked on entrepreneurial ventures as well as teaching at the collegiate level at Florida International University (FIU), where he was also a founding faculty member of the Pino Center for Global Entrepreneurship. He continued until taking a leave to open a Chicken Kitchen franchise in Miami (and a second one two years later).
After six years, he sold both businesses and returned to academia. He has been teaching at 老澳门资料 for three years, previously building the entrepreneurship program at Jacksonville University for about four years, including the inception of the JU Dolphin Pitch Contest and the rekindling of the Davis Entrepreneurship Organization. He has been involved with the Florida Veterans Entrepreneurship Program (FVEP) for two years and spent the Fall of 2021 as the Lead Instructor for the Swisher Growth Cohort for Underrepresented Entrepreneurs.
Blackstone LaunchPad Mentors
The LaunchPad provides mentors to help student startups shape their ideas and get them started on their own unique entrepreneurial journey. The LaunchPad is fortunate to benefit from the expertise of successful entrepreneurs from the community, as well as alumni entrepreneurs. Innovation Mentors serve as peer advisors to a portfolio of student startups, coaching them on strategy, venture development, and pitch presentations.
Stewardship Council
The Blackstone LaunchPad Stewardship Council brings together campus leaders to support the objectives and goals of the Blackstone LaunchPad and foster its success university-wide.