Stuart Coulson

Stuart Coulson is the Co-Founder and Director of Social Entrepreneurship Lab and Extreme Design Lab at Stanford University and a Lecturer at the Graduate School of Business, where he leads the Design for Extreme Affordability program. Student teams develop products and services to tackle poverty in the developing world. Projects and startups emerging from the program have affected the lives of more than 100 million people so far. Stuart is an investor in and advisor to early stage technology and social impact organizations in Silicon Valley and Ireland. He is a member of the Trinity College Dublin Provost’s Council and sits on the board of Trinity’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub. He also grows old-vine Zinfandel grapes and enjoys regularly quality testing the resulting award winning wines. Stuart’s background is in software development, data communications and travel reservations systems. His previous roles include senior leadership in some of the world’s largest travel technology companies and several startups. He co-founded Gradient Solutions, a pioneer in web-based travel e-commerce, acquired by Sabre. Stuart holds a BA (Mod.) in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin, an MBA from the University of Geneva and an EMBA from the Tepper Business School, Carnegie Mellon University. Previously, Stuart co-founded Gradient Solutions. Gradient developed on-line travel booking engines for customers such as Austrian Airlines, Delta, KLM, Northwest Airlines, Thomas Cook and Virgin Travelstore. As Technology Director and Joint CEO, Stuart was responsible for technical strategy, product architecture, product development, customer solutions and hosting operations, as well as sharing the responsibility for general management. Gradient was acquired by Sabre.