Eckart Wintzen (April 19, 1939 – March 21, 2008) was a Dutch

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

, venture capitalist, and

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

. He was known for founding software company BSO/Origin, co-founding Ex'pression College, and contributing to the success of Ben & Jerry's

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

, and Greenwheels. In his own words, he wanted to "put technology at the service of inter-human warmth." He died of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

in 2008, while on vacation in France.

Early life and education

Wintzen was born in a fishing village in

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

, and later studied math and physics at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

. In the early 1960s, he served a mandatory stint in the Dutch army, where he first developed an interest in computers.

Business career

BSO/Origin

In 1976, Wintzen founded the software company BSO, which was later renamed Origin. In 1995, the privately held company had 6,500 employees and 100 offices in 24 countries, with global revenues above $500 million. The firm's clients included

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...

Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

, and

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

. In 1996, the company merged with Philips Communications and Processing Services, and ready to move on to other ventures, Wintzen chose not to stay onboard after the merger.

Ex'tent

After retiring from Origin in 1996, Wintzen decided to put the profits to good use. He founded

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

venture capital firm Ex'tent, which offered management and financial support to small companies with

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

missions.

Ex'pression College

In 1999, Wintzen co-founded Ex'pression College, a private for-profit college for digital arts, in

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley, California, Berkeley and Oakland, California, Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisc ...

. Initially, the school was funded exclusively by Wintzen, who invested roughly $20 million into the project. Wintzen said his support of the school was part of a plan to participate in the "immaterial economy." Along with the management team, Wintzen actively participated in the development of the long-term vision and goals for the school.

Advising

Eckart advised many entrepreneurs, and served on the boards of commercial and

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organizations including the Dianne Fossey Gorilla Fund and the Carbon Disclosure Project.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wintzen, Eckart 1939 births 2008 deaths Venture capitalists Angel investors Dutch businesspeople Dutch company founders Technology company founders Founders of American schools and colleges Leiden University alumni