Buck Goldstein, BA ’70, JD ’76
Lifetime MemberBuck Goldstein is Professor of the Practice Emeritus in the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Goldstein joined the University faculty in 2004 to build what was then called the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, a multi-year, multi-million-dollar project to make entrepreneurship, broadly defined, part of the intellectual fabric of the campus. The entrepreneurship curriculum has been named by a variety of national publications as among the nation’s best. In 2010, he co-authored, with Holden Thorp, Engines of Innovation—The Entrepreneurial University in the 21st Century, making the case for the pivotal role of research universities as agents of societal change. In 2018, Goldstein and Thorp authored a second book, Our Higher Calling—Rebuilding the Partnership Between America and its Colleges and Universities also published by UNC Press.
Goldstein is the co-founder of Information America, an online information business that evolved over a 15-year period from start-up through venture financing to public company before it was ultimately acquired by the Thomson Corporation. He later founded NetWorth Partners, a venture capital fund focusing on information-based enterprises with Mellon Ventures as its largest investor and subsequently became a partner in Mellon Ventures, the venture capital arm of Mellon Bank.
Goldstein was the Founding Chair of the Advisory Board for the Institute of Arts and Humanities at UNC and continues as a lifetime member of the Board. He also serves on the Chancellor’s Think Tank and the National Advisory Board of the Ackland Art Museum, both at UNC. He previously served on the Board of the High Museum in Atlanta as well as numerous technology companies in Atlanta and in the Raleigh-Durham area.
Goldstein was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Information Industry Association and Information America appeared numerous times on the Inc 500 list of fastest growing companies. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina and an honors graduate of its law school. He lives with his wife Kay in Chapel Hill.