Rethinking Schools, Genius and Heroes - April 8, 2011
Jeff Sandefer lives a dual life as an entrepreneur and a teacher.
As an entrepreneur, Jeff founded his first successful business at age 16. His third business, Sandefer Offshore, started at age 27, returned $500 million in profits on a million dollar investment -- in less than four years. Recently he sold Sandefer Capital Partners, an oil and gas investment firm that held several billion dollars in assets.
Business may be his day job, but Jeff's passion is teaching. While at the University of Texas, students awarded Jeff with the school's outstanding teacher award five times, and he was selected by "BusinessWeek" as one the top entrepreneurship professors in the United States.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxOKC, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxOKC event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.