Grammy Winner Named Entrepreneurial Venture Creation Person of the Year

By Lori Wright, Media Relations
May 7, 2008

Kevin Short, professor of mathematics, is the 2008 Entrepreneurial Venture Creation Person of the Year. Credit: Douglas Prince, Photo Services

The Whittemore School of Business and Economics has named Grammy winner and professor of mathematics Kevin Short the 2008 Entrepreneurial Venture Creation Person of the Year.

“Kevin has been an entrepreneurial leader at the university, from developing technology that led to the university’s first spin-out company to using that technology to restore the only live recording of Woody Guthrie in concert. We are honored to have such an innovator as a colleague and to recognize him with this award,” said Dan Innis, dean of the Whittemore School.

Short was presented the award at the Bud Albin Challenge Round of the Paul J. Holloway Prize Competition Saturday, May 3 at UNH Manchester. The Whittemore School is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Paul J. Holloway Prize Competition, which is the state’s oldest business plan competition and honors New Hampshire businessman Paul J. Holloway. Three teams will vie for the $10,000 first-place prize in the final round of competition Wednesday, May 14, 2008, in Durham.

“I feel honored to be receiving this award. I am excited about the potential for start-ups in New Hampshire and I hope to continue working with the university, New Hampshire entrepreneurs and students to take fledgling ideas and turn them into companies,” Kevin Short said.

Short is the founder of Chaoticom, the university’s first spin-out company. He is renowned for his invention of Chaotic Compression Technology, which uses advanced signal processing methods and a mathematical theory known as chaos in the analysis of audio, speech, video, and image data.

When consumers download a song or an artist’s ring tone to their cell phones, they are using this type of technology. He used similar technology in his role as a mastering engineer on a team that restored a 1949 bootleg wire recording of a live Woody Guthrie concert, the only known live recording believed in existence, and received his Grammy for this achievement.

The Entrepreneurial Venture Creation award is given to a New Hampshire resident with a demonstrated commitment to the state's business community, an appreciation for UNH and its resources, and a track record of creating entrepreneurial value by starting companies, supporting and promoting new ventures and mentoring individuals engaged in business start-ups.

More information on the 20th Annual Paul J. Holloway Prize is available at http://unh.edu/presidentialevents/hollowayprize/.

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