Rob Lalka Discusses the Venture Alchemists
RCB President Bruce Rogers with Kiwanis Club of Birmingham President Dr. Tracey Morant Adams, Rotarian Josh Carpenter and Rob Lalka
This week the Rotary Club of Birmingham (RCB) welcomed the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham for a joint meeting with guest speaker Rob Lalka, Tulane Business School Professor and Executive Director of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation & Author. He discussed ideas from his book, "The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits into Power," which focuses on the mindset of growth at all costs which fueled the tech industry. Lalka explained the detrimental effects of social media, particularly on young people and asked if the industry’s guiding principles align with the Rotary Four-Way Test.
“Are we spending our time, our attention,” Lalka said, “Are we parenting in ways where our children will spend their time, their attention…in ways that ask questions like ‘Is it the truth?’ ‘Is it fair to all concerned?” ‘Will it build good will and better friendships?’ and ‘Is it beneficial for all concerned?’”
Bio for Rob Lalka
Rob Lalka is Professor of Practice in Management, the Albert R. Lepage Professor in Business at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business, and the Executive Director of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He has received the A.B. Freeman School’s Excellence in Intellectual Contributions Award three times, most recently for the critically acclaimed new book, The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power, from Columbia University Press, which was the #1 new release in both Venture Capital and Business Ethics on Amazon. Kirkus Reviews called it “An impressive work of research and intellectual reflection," adding this praise: “The body of work addressing this subject now seems inexhaustible, but this book must count as among its most clear-eyed, well researched, and morally uncompromising examples.”
Lalka moved to New Orleans from Washington, DC, where he was a director at Village Capital and a senior advisor at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Prior, he served in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships and was on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, for which he was recognized with the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and its Meritorious Honor Award.
Lalka currently serves on the boards of Public Democracy, Inc., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, and Venture For America in New Orleans. He graduated from Yale University, cum laude with distinction in both history and English, holds his master’s degree in public policy from Duke University, and earned executive education certificates from Harvard Business School.