Trish Costello

Trish Costello
Director, The Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship

Trish Costello’s professional background includes entrepreneurial, corporate, non-profit and academic experience. She is recognized internationally for her pioneering work in educating and preparing venture capital investment partners, through the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program. As the founding CEO and now CEO Emeritus of the Center for Venture Education, she expanded the Kauffman Fellows education program to venture capitalists in 10 countries on four continents. Costello was on the start-up team of the Kauffman Foundation’s entrepreneurship center, where for eight years she directed its efforts in venture capital, angel investing, entrepreneur support programs, and programming to accelerate high potential women entrepreneurs. She played a leading role nationally in obtaining greater financial equity investments in women’s businesses and in funding initiatives supporting high-growth women entrepreneurs, including Springboard and The Diana Project.

Costello continues to serve as President of CVE Capital Corp, a holding company affiliated with a $250 million VC fund of funds created to endow the Kauffman Fellows Program. Her prior experience includes developing small business products and marketing strategies at the initial divestiture of the Bell System and launching medical ventures for an investor group of twenty prominent children’s hospitals as Executive Vice President of the start-up Child Health Corporation of America.

She serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Science Foundation for its Small Business Innovation Research Grants. She was an advisor to the Small Business Administration on its work with entrepreneurs under President Bill Clinton and served on the Small Business Administration Transition Committee under President George W. Bush. She has served on numerous boards and advisory committees to entrepreneurial organizations and institutes, including the National Venture Capital Association, the International Business Forum, and the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program. Costello’s free time centers on 17 year old twin daughters.