Morse, Kenneth P.

Founding Managing Director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Cambridge, Massachusets, US, Visiting Professor, ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain
  • Founding Managing Director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center, 1996-2009
  • Visiting Professor, ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain
  • Chair in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Competitiveness, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
  • Chairman, Entrepreneurship Ventures, Inc.
  • Serial Entrepreneur
  • Bachelor of Science, MIT, 1968
  • MBA, Harvard Business School, 1972

Ken has been a high performance leader in global high tech sales and sales management for over 35 years.

Track Record

Prior to joining the MIT Entrepreneurship Center as Founding Managing Director in 1996, Ken Morse was a co-founder of six high-tech companies, together with MIT friends and classmates. Five of these ventures had successful IPOs or mergers; one was a disaster. They included 3Com Corporation, Aspen Technology, Inc., a China Trade Company, a biotech venture, and an expert systems company. Ken was either the CEO or responsible for part or all of the Sales organization in each of these new enterprises.

During his 4+ years as Managing Director of AspenTech (AZPN) Europe SA/NV, Ken’s team achieved 18 consecutive quarters of on-target sales performance by building close strategic relationships with the leading chemical and pharma companies throughout the region. He grew the AspenTech EMEA organization from 22 to 200+ employees with basically zero staff turnover, and expanded sales revenue 600 - 900% with key client relationships.

Ken’s interest in international high tech ventures began at MIT, where he graduated with a BS in Political Science in 1968 followed in 1972 with an MBA from Harvard Business School. Upon graduation, he joined Schroders, the UK-based merchant bank, where he was personal assistant to Jim Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank.

In 1975 Ken formed a trading advisory company under the aegis of Chase Manhattan Bank to assist U.S. technology-based companies such as IBM, General Motors, Gilette, Hughes Aircraft, Mine Safety Appliances, Waters Associates, and others to enter the China market. Ken was based in Beijing for five years during the latter half of the Cultural Revolution.

In 1980, Morse relocated to Silicon Valley as a founding member of 3Com Corporation. In the thirteen years that Ken served as Founding managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, the number of students taking Entrepreneurship Courses increased from 220 to 1,600 per year while the number of professors grew from 3 to over 36. Ken was named “Education All Star” by Mass High Tech magazine.

Ken is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York City) and the Cercle Royal Gaulois Artistique & Littéraire (Brussels). Ken is a member of the Board of Advisors of three early-stage Venture Capital Firms: PolyTechnos Venture-Partners (Munich), Rudyard Partners, LLC (Boston), and The Entrepreneurs Fund III (Silicon Valley).

Ken serves on the Board of Advisors of Denkwerk GmbH in Germany, iMotions - Emotion Technology A/S and Zylinc ApS in Denmark, Naseeb Networks and Sofizar in Pakistan as well as Dynasil and several MIT spin-offs, including Terrafugia, Inc.

Ken speaks fluent French and some Chinese. When he is not helping young companies to succeed, Ken enjoys sailing his wooden boat with his family around Cape Cod.

He is currently writing a book about globally minded entrepreneurs who built great companies far from Silicon Valley and Route 128. The working title is “Making it Happen Globally”.