His friends call him Mr. Wiki. His business partners call him Google. But Jeffrey Stamp prefers to go by what his entrepreneurship students have been calling him for years: Stamp. A simple name for a complex guy, Stamp is recognized worldwide as a master creative practitioner in over 30 different industries including food processing, advanced agriculture, manufacturing systems, and venture capital arenas.
After growing up as a slightly too energetic kid on a farm in Iowa, Stamp earned a PhD in Food Science and another PhD in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota. Armed with a taste for creating and a mind for mastering, he went on to become the inventor, creator, and section manager of the initial brand and product development team of "Baked Lays", for PepsiCo's snack division Frito-Lay. The launch of the product earned top honors as Ernst and Young’s top brand introduction in the 90's for the food sector.
Stamp then went on to launch his own branding innovation business in both consumer goods and technology arenas, which he successfully sold a few years later. He then got an offer to serve as the Chief Trained Brain for the widely recognized Eureka! Ranch, a leading product and service creativity think-tank. There he perfected his creativity techniques while working with hundreds of companies each year helping them create products that you probably use every day. Yep, he got an award working there too. Stamp and his team were awarded the "George Land World-Class Innovator Award" in 1999 from the Innovation Network and Fast Company magazine.
Stamp now focuses his efforts on distilling and sharing his creativity techniques and entrepreneurship methodologies through his current company, Bold Thinking. He also currently resides as endowed professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of North Dakota, which has placed of the top twenty-five undergraduate programs in entrepreneurship by Entrepreneur Magazine and the Princeton Review every year since he arrived. Giving kudos to his unique teaching style, in 2008 Stamp was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award from the Acton Foundation.
Stamp’s latest innovation is the SyllabetsTM method of teaching “Discovery Thinking” to children through the use of one-syllable words to create engaging stories that improve reading fluency, literacy competency, and ignite imagination skills. The first book in the series Red and Slim: One Hot Day is currently available at Amazon.
Along with all of his diverse ventures, Stamp is also highly sought speaker, giving an average of 50 keynotes nationwide each year in his unique, engaging, and experiential style. And yes, he has been known to eat chalk during his workshops. We can’t tell you why; you’ll just have to find out.
