The Jacobs Institute is pleased to announce that Mark Hatch, a leading voice in the maker movement, has joined the Jacobs Institute as Entrepreneur-in-Residence. In this role, Hatch will be an active member of the Jacobs Institute community, spending dedicated time in Jacobs Hall and collaborating with faculty on efforts to assess the impacts of the maker movement, both for individual students and for society as a whole. “We are delighted to welcome Mark Hatch,” says Paul Wright, professor of mechanical engineering and a member of the Jacobs Institute faculty director’s council. “He is one of the early founders of the maker movement and brings enormous experience to the techniques of 3D printing and integration with software and electronics. His next ‘big thing’ is to design makerspaces and procedures that can scale across the U.S. and the world.”
Reflecting this focus, Hatch will work with faculty at the Jacobs Institute to study makerspace practices and the effects of the maker movement on local, state, and national levels. Exploring relationships between hands-on making and areas such as student learning outcomes, workforce preparedness, and diversity in STEM fields, this collaboration will look at making’s role in fostering societal and economic impact. In connection with this project, Hatch will support new collaborations between the Jacobs Institute and industry, government, and nonprofits. “Mark truly understands how to let makers grow into successful entrepreneurs,” says Bjoern Hartmann, the Jacobs Institute’s faculty director. “We are looking forward to working with him on characterizing the important role of hands-on making for our national innovation pipeline.”
About Mark Hatch:
Mark Hatch is a General Partner at Network Society Ventures and the former CEO and co-founder of TechShop. His book best-selling book, The Maker Movement Manifesto, was published by McGraw-Hill in September 2013 and has become the leading resource for organizations and individuals who want to understand and engage the movement. He is an entrepreneur, author, consultant, investor, and a former Green Beret. He has held executive positions focused on innovation, disruptive technology, and entrepreneurship in various industry sectors, including packaged goods, manufacturing, retail, and healthcare.
Hatch has spoken at the White House, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Council on Foreign Relations, Singularity U, TEDx, and many others, and he has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, Bloomberg, CNN, and Fox. He has also been quoted in numerous prominent magazines and newspapers, such as Bloomberg Business, FastCompany, Inc, Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The LA Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Xconomy named him a “Biz Dev Ninja,” and he was recognized as one of “25 leaders in the new industrial revolution” by Popular Mechanics.