Robin Chase is an American transportation entrepreneur. She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar. She is also the founder and former CEO of Buzzcar, a peer-to-peer car-sharing service, acquired by Drivy. She also started the defunct GoLoco.org, a vehicle for hire company. She is co-founder and executive chairman of Veniam, a vehicle network communications company. She authored the book, ''Peers Inc: How People and Platforms are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism''.

Early life

The daughter of a US diplomat, Chase spent her childhood moving around the Middle East and Africa. She graduated from Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa, Wellesley College (B.A.), the MIT Sloan School of Management (M.B.A.), and won a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Career

In 2000, Chase co-founded Zipcar with Antje Danielson. In January 2001, Chase fired Danielson after she petitioned Zipcar's board for the ability to make hiring and firing decisions without consulting them. In February 2003, after difficulties in securing additional rounds of funding, Chase was replaced as CEO by the Zipcar board with Scott Griffith. In addition to Veniam, Chase has served as a board member for the World Resources Institute, and has been since 2014 chairperson of the board for the Nasdaq and TSE listed Tucows Inc. Formerly, she served on the board of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation,, quote=Gov. Deval Patrick said Wednesday that he appointed Robin Chase, the co-founder of Boston-based ride-sharing company Zipcar, to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation board of directors. was a member of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

's Transportation Council, a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the US Department of Transportation Intelligent Transportation Systems Program Advisory Committee, the Boston Mayor's Wireless Task Force, and Governor

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was the first African Americans, African-American Governor of Massachusetts and the first Democratic Pa ...

's Transportation Transition Team. She has appeared in national media such as the '' Today Show'', ''The

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'',

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, '' Wired'', ''

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'' and ''

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'' magazines, and has been mentioned in several books on entrepreneurship. Chase is a proponent for the creation of a wireless mesh network so that end-user devices can create a shared wireless network. In France she started Buzzcar, now Getaround.com a car sharing syste
See TED Talk

Awards

Chase has won several awards. She was listed as one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2009, received the Massachusetts Governor's Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit, Start-up Woman of the Year, '' Business Week’s'' top 10 designers, ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

's'' Fast 50 Champions of Innovation, technology and innovation awards from ''Fortune'', ''CIO'', and ''

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'' magazines, and numerous environmental awards from national, state and local governments and organizations.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Robin Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Businesspeople from Cambridge, Massachusetts MIT Sloan School of Management alumni Wellesley College alumni Harvard University fellows Waterford Kamhlaba alumni People educated at a United World College American technology company founders American women company founders American transportation businesspeople American chairpersons of corporations 21st-century American businesspeople American Internet company founders 21st-century American women