Andre Nudelman has no fear of failure. The longtime venture capitalist has owned more than 40 businesses, and says he’s had plenty of failures. “I have zero problem with that,” he says, “because I don’t believe when the business fails, I fail. I continue to be myself, continue to believe that anything’s possible.”

Nudelman, managing partner of Addquire Private Equity in Vancouver, has had plenty of successes as well. And now he’s brought his expertise to the GSE for a two-year stint as Entrepreneur-in-Residence, working with faculty and students to develop innovative projects in education and technology. Launched in 2018, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence initiative invites an accomplished entrepreneurial leader to campus for a year or longer to offer mentorship and guidance to the GSE community. Nudelman, the third to hold the residency, will be with the GSE until July 2023.

Nudelman is currently chairman of the Digital Media Academy, founded at Stanford in 1999 to provide technology education to K-12 teachers and develop technology immersion courses for students. Today it offers STEM summer camps and online courses in such topics as artificial intelligence, game design, and filmmaking to students in more than 125 countries. In addition to owning the company, Nudelman also supports 1,000 full scholarships for academy students through the Nudelman Family Trust.

Many of Nudelman’s other business ventures have also involved education — for instance, the Brazilian-born entrepreneur also started Maple Bear Schools, the largest franchised K-12 bilingual school chain in Latin America. But the GSE residency is his first time working inside a university. “I’ve spent all my life doing business,” he says. “I never had any deep experience in academia. It’s fascinating and a totally different thing for me.”