ITHACA, N.Y. -- Rob Ryan, a 1969 graduate of Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences and founder of Ascend Communications, will speak on campus Monday, April 15, at 4:30 p.m. in 155 Olin Hall on "What Goes Wrong in Start-up Companies?"

The talk, sponsored by Cornell's College of Engineering, is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception. It is geared for engineering students and faculty members who might be interested in starting their own businesses.

Ryan, an entrepreneur, author, board chairman of at least seven companies and a pioneer of the high-tech industry, founded Ascend Communications in 1989 and turned it into the leading manufacturer of Point of Presence boxes (POP) for Internet providers. A POP is an online service provider's access point to the web, and it usually includes routers, call aggregators, servers and, frequently, relays or switches.

Ryan served as president, chief executive and chairman of Ascend, which he took public in 1994 at $13 per share. It was cited by Business Week in 1995 as the best performer of the year on Wall Street, returning 721 percent. In 1996, the company reported more than $500 million in sales. Ryan sold it to Lucent Technologies for $22 billion in 1999.

In 1995, Ryan and his wife, Terry, started Entrepreneur America -- a boot camp for aspiring entrepreneurs -- on their 1,000-acre Montana ranch. Ryan is the author of Entrepreneur America: Lessons from Inside Rob Ryan's High Tech Start-up Boot Camp (Harper-Business: 2001) and he has helped launch a string of successful companies, including LookSmart, Virtmed, RightNow, Silicon Spice, Virtual Ink, Vellis and NetCracker.

Related World Wide Web sites: The following site provides additional information on this news release. It is not part of the Cornell University community, and Cornell has no control over its content or availability.

o Information on Rob Ryan:

http://www.entrepreneur-america.com

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