Benjamin "Ben" M. Rosen is the former Chairman and former Acting Chief Executive Officer of Compaq

Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....

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Early life and career

Rosen was born in New Orleans, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 on March 11, 1933 to Isadore and Anna Rosen. Rosen's father was dentist and his mother was a secretary. He received a B.S. from the California Institute of Technology

California Institute of Technology

The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...

 in 1954, and M.S. from Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students...

 in 1961. He worked on Wall Street for 20 years, ending his banking career as a Vice President at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....

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Rosen founded the venture capital company Sevin Rosen Funds

Sevin Rosen Funds

Sevin Rosen Funds is a venture capital firm that was established in 1980 by L. J. Sevin and Ben Rosen. SRF was involved in the financing of Citrix, Cypress Semiconductor, Electronic Arts, Lotus Development Corporation, Silicon Graphics, and Vitesse Semiconductor...

 in 1981 with L.J. Sevin. In this capacity, Rosen invested in Compaq Computer Corporation, eventually serving as Chairman. For a brief period, in 1999, Rosen also served as Acting CEO. As a financier, Rosen backed high tech startup companies

Startup company

A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...

 including Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

, Lotus Software

Lotus Software

Lotus Software is a software company with headquarters in Westford, Massachusetts...

 and Silicon Graphics

Silicon Graphics

Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...

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Rosen keeps a blog called "Through Rosen-Colored Glasses".