Founders & Funders Leadership Speakers Series

The Founders & Funders Leadership Speakers Series brings successful entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators to campus. Lectures are open to all.

2025-26 Speakers

Jim Swartz (TPR 1966; HON 2016)
Co-founder of Accel Partners

Wednesday, October 29, 2025
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. | ET
Simmons Auditorium B, 4765 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Located within the Tepper Quad Building's 1st Floor (Room A) by the entrance on Forbes Ave next to the Coulter Welcome Center

Join President Farnam Jahanian for a fireside chat with venture capitalist and Accel Partners co-founder Jim Swartz, followed by an opportunity for Q&A. Boxed lunches will be provided at the program’s conclusion.

A founder of Accel Partners, Jim Swartz is recognized as one of the most successful venture capitalists in the world. His firm’s roster, focused on technology investments, included industry leaders Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook and Veritas Software, and Swartz has been a lead director of more than 50 successful companies.

Raised outside Pittsburgh, Swartz was a dedicated student-athlete. After earning his bachelor’s degree in engineering and applied physics at Harvard University, he returned to Pittsburgh to earn his master’s at the Tepper School of Business. Viewing “digital computing as the future” and seeking an “analytical, operation research, computer-based management education," he chose the Tepper School's degree based on its nationally recognized pre-eminence.

After a short stint in consulting, Swartz entered the venture capital arena. Since then, he has been dedicated to sharing that knowledge and strengthening Carnegie Mellon’s leading role in entrepreneurship education.

As the recipient of scholarship funding himself, Swartz has been committed to “helping people get someplace.” As such, he established the Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellows Program for graduate students and the Swartz Entrepreneurial Leadership Series, bringing nationally recognized entrepreneurial speakers to the Tepper School.

In addition, he is a longtime member of the Tepper Business Board of Advisors, sits on the Swartz Center Advisory Board and serves as chair of the President’s Global Advisory Council, of which he was a founding member. In 2014, he and his wife dedicated $10 million in support of the Tepper School Quad and in 2015, $31 million to launch the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship.

For his distinguished career achievements and unwavering commitment, Swartz was honored as the 2018 inaugural recipient of the CMU Founders Medal for Outstanding Service and Exceptional Achievement and was previously awarded the 2013 Tepper School Alumni Achievement Award