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Shorter:

Eric Olson (CV) is a project manager at McMaster-Carr and a student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he is pursuing an MBA with concentrations in economics and finance. Prior to business school Olson was an early part of the FeedBurner team where he worked in a business development capacity through the acquisition of the company by Google in June 2007. Olson also spent time as a venture capitalist and as an institutional investment analyst.

Outside of going to school and working Olson spends his time curbing illiteracy in Chicago as a Board Member of Open Books, drumming, writing, reading, thinking about the “big questions” through the lenses of economics and physics and watching his beloved Red Sox.

Olson resides on the north side of Chicago with his fiancee.

Longer:

Eric Olson (CV) is a project manager at McMaster-Carr and a student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he is pursuing his MBA. Olson is also a Massachusetts native and Bentley College alumnus. At Bentley he earned a bachelor of science degree in finance with minor in information systems and graduated magna cum laude.

Prior to business school Olson worked as an Associate at DFJ Portage Venture Partners where he focused on financing and building globally leading technology companies in the Midwest. Before joining DFJ Portage Olson worked in Partner Development at Google and in Business Development for Chicago-based startup FeedBurner, which was acquired by Google in June 2007. (He even co-authored a Harvard Business School case study with Noam Wasserman about FeedBurner.)

In his “spare” Olson co-founded TECH cocktail, a semi-annual event for technology entrepreneurs, VCs, programmers and other tech related folks in Chicago, IL, Washington D.C., Champaign, IL, Boulder, CO and Boston, MA, but has since turned over the keys to his co-founder Frank Gruber. Olson now spends his spare time helping to curb illiteracy in Chicago as a Board Member of Open Books.

Outside of going to school and working Olson spends his time drumming, writing, reading, thinking about the “big questions” through the lenses of economics and physics and watching the Red Sox.

Olson resides on the north side of Chicago with his fiancee.

Eric in the Press:

• Medill Reports: Illinois, fretting over paucity of business startups, aims to assist tech entrepreneurs by Melissa Aparicio
• Chicago Tribune: Would Motorola departure burst Chicago’s tech bubble? by Wailin Wong
• 2009 Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 Honoree
• Networking Franchise Ready to Hook Up City Circuits: Washington Post
• Chicago’s vibrant tech community fuels web innovation: Medill Reports
• Next round for TECH cocktail co-founder: Sun-Times
• Next round for TECH cocktail’s Eric Olson: MidwestBusiness.com
• Tech of the Town: Time Out Chicago
• Sun-Times Article on Chicago Tech: Brad Spirrison

Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions on this site are all Eric Olson’s and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of his employer.