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Louis Foreman    

Entrepreneur, Innovator, Educator & Investor

Louis Foreman is founder and Chief Executive of Enventys Partners, an integrated product development and crowdfunding firm. He is also the founder of Edison Nation.

Foreman graduated from The University of Illinois with a Bachelors of Science in Economics. His interest in starting businesses and developing innovative products began during his sophomore year after founding his first company in his fraternity room.

Over the past 30 years, Foreman has created twelve successful start-ups and has been directly responsible for the creation of over 20 others. A prolific inventor, Foreman is the inventor on 12 registered US patents, while his firm is responsible for the development and filing of well over 700 more.

The recipient of numerous awards for his entrepreneurial achievements, Foreman’s passion for small business extends beyond his own companies.

Foreman is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Queens University. He received the Instructor Achievement Award for his teaching at Central Piedmont Community College, and was recognized by the National Museum of Education for his Distinguished Contributions to Education. Foreman is also an adjunct professor and the Entrepreneur in Residence at the McColl School of Business, and was the 2013 Distinguished Visiting Professor at Johnson and Wales University.

A frequent lecturer and radio/TV guest on the topics of small business creation and innovation, Foreman is often invited to be a featured speaker on the topic of innovation by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and national trade associations.

In addition to being an inventor, Foreman is also committed to inspiring others to be innovative. Foreman is the creator of the Emmy® Award Winning PBS TV Show Everyday Edisons and serves as the Executive Producer and lead judge. The show won two Emmys® in four seasons and appeared nationally on PBS.

In 2007, Foreman became the publisher of Inventors Digest, a 35-year-old publication devoted to the topic of American innovation. In 2009, his first book, The Independent Inventor’s Handbook, was published by Workman Publishing. In 2015, Foreman was awarded the IP Champion Award by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Foreman currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the James Dyson Foundation, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), Ventureprise, New Dominion Bank, and the Intellectual Property Owners Educational Foundation (IPOEF). In 2013, Foreman was appointed by the SBA Administrator, Karen Mills, to serve on the National SBDC Advisory Board, and is currently board chairman.

In 2008, Foreman was appointed by United States Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez to serve a three-year-term on the nine person Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In 2011, he was appointed by Secretary Gary Locke to serve an additional three-year-term. The committee was created by Congress in 1999 to advise the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office on matters relating to the policies, goals, performance, budget and user fees of the patent operation. In 2013, he was asked to serve as Chairman of PPAC until the end of his term in December 2014.

In 2011, Foreman was called upon multiple times to brief the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on legislation related to the US Patent system and its impact on independent inventors. On September 16, 2011, Foreman joined the President of the United States of America onstage for the signing of the America Invents Act into law. This bipartisan effort represented the most comprehensive overhaul to the US Patent System in over 60 years.

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