Daniel Cane ’98, co-founder of Blackboard and co-CEO of Modernizing Medicine, has been named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year 2026. Cane will be honored on campus April 9-10 at the Entrepreneurship at Cornell Celebration Ezra conference.

Modernizing Medicine is a medical technology company that offers software for dealing with electronic health records, practice management and patient engagement. Cane co-founded Modernizing Medicine in 2010.

Cane co-founded Blackboard Inc. as an undergraduate, and later helped take the company public. Blackboard is an online course management and student information system used by public schools and universities.

“It’s an incredible honor to be named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year,” Cane said. “Cornell has produced so many successful entrepreneurs and I am delighted to join this group.”

Cane was named one of the top 50 health care technology CEOs in 2022, 2023 and 2024 by Healthcare Technology Report. He was also named EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 and South Florida Ultimate CEO in 2016 by South Florida Business Journal.

He serves on the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County and the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. At Cornell, Cane established the Cane Entrepreneurship Scholars program and sits on the dean’s advisory council for the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. In 2018, he helped to establish The Cane Institute for Advanced Technologies at the A.D. Henderson University School at Florida Atlantic University.

Cane majored in applied economics at Cornell and started Blackboard (first named CourseInfo) as a sophomore. “There were entrepreneurship resources at Cornell at that time, but they weren’t always easy to discover,” he said. He took classes in business law, human resources, marketing and business plan writing with professors Deborah Streeter, Cindy van Es, Dale Grossman and Marge Hubbard. “They were all wonderful with their time and encouragement as I sat in their offices for endless office hours,” he said.

Cane said he’s inspired when he’s able to spend time with students, sharing both his successes and failures and trying to “point them in the right direction,” he said.

“The Dyson School’s vision of leaving the world a better place has had a profound impact on me,” Cane said of his decision to launch the Cane Scholars Program, which provides funding for students who have founded companies wanting to make a difference. “Cornell can give you all of the tools you need to run a company, then you need to go forth and change the world.”

The Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year award is given annually by Entrepreneurship at Cornell to a Cornellian who exemplifies entrepreneurial achievement, impact on humanity and an inspirational story or business outcome.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for Entrepreneurship at Cornell.