Naveen Jain

In June, Intelius CEO Naveen Jain announced the names of two Intelius Scholars he chose to attend Singularity University's (SU) Graduate Program on full scholarship. The scholarship recipients, Sharron McPherson and Emily Kuria are among only 80 highly credentialed students accepted to SU’s highly competitive Graduate Studies Program.

Specifically, Sharron McPherson was chosen due to her exceptional leadership track record and commitment to solving women's issues through Government Policy and Financing. Emily was selected for her pioneering spirit in breaking gender stereotypes in Science and Math and innovative efforts to improving public health in Kenya.

On Friday, August 26, SU held its closing ceremony at the Mountain View Computer Museum.
This ceremony gave student teams from the Graduate Studies Program the opportunity to display their projects. Here’s an update from Sharon and Emily on the incredible things they’ve accomplished during the rigorous 10 weeks.

Sharon McPherson:
“The first is a concentrated solar power solution for the developed world. On Energy Team 2, we focused on Africa and the idea was to create a dispatchable, affordable renewable energy solution for the 1.8 million people that don't have access to electricity. Once that project was underway, I wanted to explore energy solutions for the DEVELOPED world with a project called Play Energy. Play Energy is an energy efficiency company that aims to help consumers measure and control energy consumption by utilizing next generation energy consoles that include a real time, augmented reality game that links decreased consumption to gaming points.”

Emily Kuria:
“Our team is interested in developing 21st century skills in tween (4-12) and teen (13+) girls by leveraging emerging technologies to expose them to diverse opportunities and positive experiences that facilitate growth and participation. We not only want to educate girls on the skills necessary to survive and succeed in this new world, but we also want to create positive role models in social media that will inspire them. Presently, we have an established partnership with GIGAPIX Studios that have won more than 7 Emmys, and we pitched Google last week. YouTube Google are looking to redefine the way we watch TV, and are moving towards creating long-form content for viewers online. ”

Intelius congratulates Sharon and Emily for their accomplishments! Read about why they were chosen here.


Intelius CEO Naveen Jain with 2011 Scholars

Each year the Puget Sound Business Journal's Corporate Citizenship program recognizes Seattle area companies for their support of philanthropic causes. The program highlights companies through a special publication and an awards ceremony.

This year, Intelius was awarded the #9 spot in the medium-sized business category by the PSBJ's Corporate Citizenship Program based on its 2009 giving. Intelius moved up in the rankings three places from last year after increasing its giving by nearly $160,000 from 2008. With total donations totaling over $360,000, we at Intelius are proud that we were able to increase donations so significantly despite last year's troubling economic climate. The donations were split amongst more than a dozen local and national charities, with over $260,000 staying in Washington State. A few of the charities supported include Bellevue Schools Foundation, Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellevue, CRY America, YouthCare, and YWCA.

Our employees have been an inspiration by donating hundreds of volunteer hours to support education, basic needs, and family services. We hope to increase these donations in the current year through our employee match program and through our new ‘dollars for doers' campaign which will donate cash to the employee's charity of choice for each hour he or she volunteers.

We at Intelius are committed to giving back and to being a good neighbor. Since our inception in 2003 we have increased our annual contribution each year and it is our goal to break our giving record again in 2010.

Intelius is actively pursuing this goal: last weekend Intelius employees assisted Hopelink and the ‘Stamp Out Hunger' Letter Carriers food drive by sorting and packing food (look for pictures early next week at InteliusGal's new blog).

For more information about Intelius and its commitment to philanthropy, click here.

President Obama's announcement last week of his new plans for space exploration has stirred the American imagination. Obama has predicted that these new plans will lead American astronauts to land, first on an asteroid, and then on Mars, all by the mid 2030's. According to the fact sheet distributed on the President's address in Florida, this new plan advances America's commitment to human spaceflight and exploration of the solar system, with a bold new vision and timetable for reaching new frontiers deeper in space.

"We want to leap into the future," Obama said in his speech to at NASA headquarters in Cape Canaveral.

Following President Obama's bold predictions, Naveen Jain, Founder and CEO of Intelius will speak at the Churchill Club's Space Commercialization event today, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto.

"As we come to grips with our planet's finite resources, we will look to outer space to address our burgeoning needs and to sustain and further mankind," said Naveen Jain in a recent press release, "Space commercialization is not about tourism for the rich, but about uncovering new solutions for some of biggest challenges facing our world today, including conducting advanced medical research, enhancing solar energy and tapping potentially limitless natural resources."

Jain will join Peter Diamandis, president, chairman and CEO of X PRIZE Foundation; William G. Gregory, former astronaut STS-67; Bob Richards, Odyssey Moon CEO and International Space University co-founder, and Dr. David Livingston, founder and host of "The Space Show" at the Churchill Club event. The distinguished panelists will explore the present and future of space commercialization, including the economics, future trends, and potential for public-private partnerships.
Check back soon for video from the Churchill Group panel discussion.

Intelius founder and CEO Naveen Jain was recently interviewed by Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal. In the interview Naveen discusses his plans for the future of Intelius, his successes and what he attributes them to:

• Passion - You must be passionate about what you are trying to achieve. It must mean something to you and you must be willing to sacrifice a large part of your waking hours to this purpose. Your passion will ignite the same intensity in others who join your team and help the same cause. Your team members and your customers are more likely to believe in what you are doing because of your passion.
• Focus - Great entrepreneurs see many opportunities where others see nothing; this is a gift but without focus can be the downfall. We can only focus on things that we can control and that means we need to stay focused on our efforts and let the results be what they will be. You have to always remember that most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation i.e. companies suffer from doing too many things at the same time rather than doing too few things.
• Hard Work - Success comes from hard work; there is no such thing as overnight success. Behind every overnight success lies years of hard work and sweat. Even the luckiest people will tell you that there is just no easy way to achieve success. Luck comes to those who work hard. Successful entrepreneurs always give 100% of their efforts to everything they do. There should never be any regret in the outcome if one knows that they are giving it their best effort and leaving no stone unturned. - Search Engine Journal

Read the full article at SearchEngineJournal.com