Phil Soran

About

Phil Soran is a Carlson School guest lecturer and a serial technology entrepreneur. He was inducted into the 2016 Minnesota Business Hall of Fame and selected for the TCB 2017 Outstanding Director award. The MSP Business Journal selected Phil as the inaugural inductee to the Titans of Technology Hall of Fame in 2014. Ernst and Young (2008) and El Dorado Ventures (2007) recognized Phil as Entrepreneur of the Year. Phil co-founded Flipgrid, an ed-tech company spinoff from the University of Minnesota, in 2015. Phil was the founder, President, and CEO of Compellent Technologies, which he started in his basement in 2002. Compellent went public on the NYSE in 2007 and was acquired by Dell for $960M in 2011.

Previously, Phil served as chief executive officer and president of XIOtech Corp, which he co-founded in his basement in 1995, and was purchased by Seagate in January of 2000 for $360M. Soran also spent 10 years at IBM. Phil serves on the boards of Piper Jaffray, SPS Commerce, Help Systems, Flipgrid, and Foodsby. He serves as a trustee for the University of Minnesota Foundation and St. Thomas University, and the Board of Directors of MN Comeback, Great MN Schools. Prior to his technology career, Phil was a junior high Math teacher in Colorado