Krisztina Holly

Krisztina 'Z' Holly
Krisztina 'Z' Holly at Foo Camp 2013 in Sebastopol, CA, on August 3, 2013
Occupation	Innovator and Entrepreneur

Krisztina Holly, known by her colleagues as 'Z' is a Hungarian American innovator, entrepreneur, and adventurer. She is the host of The Art of Manufacturing podcast and the Founder and Chief Instigator of MAKE IT IN LA, which was launched from her term as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for LA Mayor Garcetti. She is best known as the creator of the first TEDx, the founding executive director of the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Vice Provost for Innovation and founding executive director of the Stevens Center for Innovation at the University of Southern California. She was founder or key team member of various technology startups including Stylus Innovation, Direct Hit Technologies, and Jeeves Solutions and was a prominent mountain bike advocate in New England for a decade. She currently serves as Advisor at Good Growth Capital and a board member and founding donor of the River LA, and has been an advisor to nearly two dozen other companies and organizations, including the Obama Administration and the World Economic Forum. She is married and resides in Los Angeles.

Holly was born to Hungarian parents and has written about being greatly influenced by their stories of escaping their home country in 1956 and being refugees in America. From a young age she thought she would be an entrepreneur. She attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering. She, Michael Cassidy and John Barrus won the MIT business plan competition in 1991 with Stylus Innovation, which was acquired by Artisoft in 1996 for $12.8M.

Holly created TEDxUSC, the first ever TEDx event in 2009, which so far inspired over 15,000 similar events globally. In her role as curator and host for TEDxUSC over four years, she discovered and coached more than 60 presenters whose videos have garnered 12 million views online. From 2006-2012 she was the vice provost for innovation at USC and founding executive director the USC Stevens Center for Innovation. From 2002-2006 she was the founding executive director of the MIT Deshpande Center. While at MIT and USC, she helped expand the innovation ecosystems in Boston and LA and the centers helped spin out 39 startups based on university research.