Our Instructors
What makes The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative's instructors stand out from the crowd is their experience in the real-world. The Trump Initiative instructors are made up of Fortune 500 senior executives, outstanding entrepreneurs, and also includes professors from the world's leading educational institutions, such as: Columbia University, Dartmouth College and Northwestern University. Our instructors; along with the founder of The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, Donald Trump, are dedicated to one cause: Making the Real World Your Classroom.
The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative Instructors:
Gary Eldred
Jack Kaplan
Koz Khosravani
Richard Parker
Randal Pinkett
Don Sexton
John Vogel
Paul Wimer
Gary Eldred
Gary W. Eldred, Ph.D., has worked as an investor, consultant, professor, and author in the field of real estate for more than 25 years. He frequently speaks at major investment conferences and has been interviewed/consulted by journalists at CNN, BBC, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many others. Dr. Eldred, has authored 21 books, including Investing in Real Estate and the series, "Make Money in Real Estate." He has also written or co-written three college textbooks and many academic articles and research papers. Dr. Eldred began acquiring properties at age 21, and today his properties include residential rentals as well as ownership interests in office buildings, shopping centers, and apartment communities. As a real estate consultant, Dr. Eldred has served Fortune 500 companies such as Wells Fargo, Georgia Pacific, and Century 21, as well as entrepreneurial investors and property developers. He has held faculty positions in the graduate business programs of Stanford, University of Illinois, and University of Virginia. He has also taught urban land economics and real estate investing at the University of British Columbia and the American University of Sharjah in Dubai.
Jack Kaplan
Jack M. Kaplan is a teacher, author, and entrepreneur with extensive business experience in early-stage financing and in growth companies. Mr. Kaplan has taught entrepreneurship courses focusing on, business plans, entrepreneurial management, and new technology ventures. He has made presentations at numerous seminars and is the author of several books, including Patterns of Entrepreneurship, Getting Started in Entrepreneurship, Smart Cards: The Global Information Passport, and many articles. Mr. Kaplan has launched and managed three successful IT systems and database software companies. He is president of Datamark Technologies, Inc., a stored-value and loyalty company that was recently acquired by Stored Value Systems. He has worked as a consultant for a host of Fortune 500 organizations, including Aetna, Panasonic, and Johnson & Johnson. He is currently adjunct professor of entrepreneurial studies at Columbia Business School.
Koz Khosravani
Koz Khosravani is an Internet expert, a Computer Information Systems consultant, an Information Technology and educational technology lecturer, and a national speaker who has shared the stage with The President of the United States, Donald Trump, Tony Robbins, George Foreman and many other top speakers.
Koz has been active in the field of Information Technology and education for approximately fifteen years as a software engineer, project manager, educator, trainer, and consultant. He has trained technical employees at various Fortune 500 companies, including Digital Equipment Corporation, Raytheon, Hughes, and Edison International.
His area of specialization includes Internet promotion and marketing, Internet conversions, digital movie editing, educational technology, e-business security & back-end integration, distributed relational database management systems, wireless technologies, networking and web development.
Richard Parker
Richard Parker is an expert in the art of buying businesses. Since 1990, he has purchased ten businesses and has started several more. He is the author of six comprehensive programs on buying businesses including the "How To Buy A Good Business At A Great Price(c)" series, and has had over 100 articles published. As President and founder of Diomo Corporation, his materials and live seminars have helped thousands of prospective small business buyers in over 70 countries realize their dream of business ownership. He is a monthly columnist for Florida Investor magazine, the resident featured expert for Bizquest, and the main provider of content on buying businesses to all major online business for sale databases. He is a highly successful and sought after intermediary representing both business buyers and sellers.
Randal Pinkett
Randal Pinkett, M.B.A., Ph.D., is the founder, chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, a multimillion dollar management, technology and policy consulting services firm that works with corporations, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations. BCT Partners is one of the leading consulting firms in the country with expertise in housing and community development, economic development, healthcare, human services, and education.
Dr. Pinkett was also named the winner of NBC's hit reality television show, "The Apprentice" Season 4, with Donald Trump. During his first year, he was responsible for overseeing both renovation and information technology projects for Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City, NJ. Since then, Dr. Pinkett has maintained a role with the Trump Organization as a national spokesperson for the Trump Institute, instructor for The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, leader of a Youth Apprentice Program, and boardroom advisor to Donald Trump on "The Apprentice."
Dr. Pinkett has been featured on nationally televised programs such as The Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, and Larry King Live, and is the author of "Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business." He holds five degrees including: a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar; and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, MBA, and Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Don Sexton
Sexton, M.B.A. and Ph.D., is a teacher, researcher, and founder and president of The Arrow Group, Ltd., a consulting and training services firm. He has taught a wide variety of courses in marketing, international business, and quantitative methods. His research concerns successful global marketing and branding strategies and is based on his empirical studies as well as his considerable consulting work with major companies throughout the world. Dr. Sexton has written numerous articles for publications such as the Journal of Marketing and
John Vogel
John H. Vogel, Jr. is a professor of real estate at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. Mr. Vogel is the author or coauthor of numerous case studies for Tuck as well as for the Harvard Business School. He is the coauthor of two books and has written chapters in several others, along with numerous articles about real estate finance, development, and investing. As a consultant, Mr. Vogel provides training courses to major banks, corporations, and community groups across the country. He also has extensive experience as an executive for real estate investment and development companies. Mr. Vogel has been teaching at graduate business schools for more than 20 years. In addition to Tuck, he has served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the Yale School of Management. Business Week's Guide to Business Schools named him as one of Tuck's outstanding faculty.
Paul Wimer
Paul Wimer is one of the chief partners at Topspin Partners, a $213 M Venture Capital and private equity firm, where he is responsible for identifying qualified entrepreneurial ventures, negotiating financing terms, and building investment syndicate, including: other investors, making the investment, then actively assisting the venture as it matures. Paul works closely with management teams at each venture to shape the company, whether through strategic planning, recruiting new team members, refining business, and financial models, or assisting in the operation of the enterprise. Prior to joining Topspin, Paul was in charge of the manufacturing practice at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). In that capacity he managed a substantial consulting staff and gained a broad understanding of the process necessary to operate a successful manufacturing business. Paul also served as a manufacturing manager at Procter and Gamble. Paul received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Yale University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
