Rob Lalka

Author | Professor | Entrepreneur 
Rob Lalka is an award-winning professor at Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business and author of the critically acclaimed book, The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power. His riveting speeches shed new light on the tech industry and the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who have gained immense wealth and power over the last two decades. "Lalka
traces the ambitions, adversities, and compromises that transformed young innovators into billionaires." - Walter Isaacson
BIRMINGHAM ROTARY CLUB
NEW ORLEANS BOOK FESTIVAL

INNOVATORS WITH JANE KING
BUSINESS FIRST WITH
​ANGELA MILES
Rob Lalka is an entrepreneur, Tulane professor, and author of The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power, an Amazon #1 New Release in Venture Capital, Business Ethics, and Computers & Tech. He is currently Professor of Practice in Management, the Albert R. Lepage Professor in Business at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business, and 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. Rob is an advisor to CNBC for the Disruptor 50, its annual list of the innovative companies best able to disrupt established industries and public companies, and is a founding member and advisor to Nieux, a community formed to make a positive impact on New Orleans through technology and innovation. He serves on the boards of Public Democracy, Inc., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, and Venture For America in New Orleans.  

Rob was previously an American diplomat, serving in both Republican and Democratic administrations as a Presidential Management Fellow. 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. He then became a director at one of the world’s most active venture capital groups, which has supported more than 1,100 entrepreneurs in 28 countries over the past decade. He was a senior advisor at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, a philanthropy with one of the world’s largest annual grant making budgets providing over $150 million each year to charitable causes, journalists, and activists in 40 countries.  In 2012, he co-founded a consulting firm that supported leading impact investors, startup enterprises, and public corporations to grow their businesses while measuring and maximizing their impact.  

Rob 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.

Speech Topics

The Dangers of Social Media: WHAT BIG TECH INTENDED TO DO TO US, WHAT THEY DID, AND WHAT WE CAN DO NOW
In The Venture Alchemists,  Rob Lalka explores how social media platforms, initially designed to connect us, have led to significant societal challenges - and as we learn more about the origin stories of the companies, many of these problems were apparent from the start. We'll discuss how Big Tech's platforms have influenced behavior, mental health, and democracy, and what steps we can take now to mitigate the worst impacts. Learn how to reclaim control over your digital life and advocate for healthier online communities.
data is the world's most valuable asset: how tech ventures have changed business and society
In The Venture Alchemists, Rob Lalka reveals how and why data has become the most valuable asset in today's world, which has transformed businesses and society. We'll examine how tech ventures harness data to gain influence and to capture value, impacting our lives in profound ways. Understand the implications of this data-driven era and the ways we can all take greater responsibility – indeed, both personal and corporate responsibility – to improve our lives by sharing more in the value of our data and content.
Silicon Valley's Influence Over Politics and Policy: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power 
Rob Lalka's recently published, The Venture Alchemists, uncovers Silicon Valley's growing influence over politics and policy, where tech giants leverage their success to shape public agendas. Rob will lead a discussion about how companies like Facebook and Uber have turned economic power into political clout. Gain insights into the implications of this power shift and the future of the governance of not only high-tech and high-growth businesses but also any enterprise seeking to compete in the modern era.
“A unique and searing perspective on the growth-at-all-costs mindset that fueled the tech industry”


— Jonathan Greenblatt 
National Director and CEO, Anti-Defamation League

Previous Engagements​​

  • Think Bigger Summit, Columbia University
  • Harvard University/MIT Private Event
  • American Enterprise Institute
  • Entrepreneurs Organization, Baton Rouge
  • Busboys and Poets, Washington, DC
  • National Press Club,Washington, DC
  • Book Passage, San Francisco
  • New Orleans Book Festival
  • New Orleans Entrepreneur Week
  • Birmingham Rotary Club


​Books

The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits into Power
​We once idolized tech entrepreneurs for creating innovations that seemed like modern miracles. Yet our faith has been shattered. We now blame them for spreading lies, breaking laws, and causing chaos. Yesterday’s Silicon Valley darlings have become today’s Big Tech villains. Which is it? Are they superheroes or scoundrels? Or is it more complicated, some blend of both?

In The Venture Alchemists, Rob Lalka demystifies how tech entrepreneurs built empires that made trillions. Meta started as a cruel Halloween prank, Alphabet began as a master’s thesis that warned against corporate deception, and Palantir came from a campus controversy over hateful speech. These largely forgotten origin stories show how ordinary fears and youthful ambitions shaped their ventures―making each tech tale relatable, both wonderfully and tragically human. Readers learn about the adversities tech entrepreneurs overcame, the troubling tradeoffs they made, and the tremendous power they now wield. Using leaked documents and previously unpublished archival material, Lalka takes readers inside Big Tech’s worst exploitations and abuses, alongside many good intentions and moral compromises.

But this story remains unfinished, and The Venture Alchemists ultimately offers hope from the people who, decades ago, warned about the risks of the emerging Internet. Their insights illuminate a path toward more responsible innovations, so that technologies aren’t dangerous weapons but valuable tools that ensure progress, improve society, and enhance our daily lives.

--"a provocative, deeply researched book that is frankly jaw-dropping in places”  Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America, Former Director of Policy Planning of the United States


​Related Links

OFFICIAL WEBSITE
BERKLEY FORUM
Lies, Damned Lies, and Startups: Reexamining America’s Promotion of Democracy, Entrepreneurship, and Technology in Muslim Communities 
​FIREWALL 
Why Money Doesn't Equal Power
BIZ NEW ORLEANS
​​The New NOEW