Terik Tidwell is a Venture Humanist investing in the capacity of individuals and organizations to reach their full potential. Over the past 17 years, he has worked at the intersection of entrepreneurship, technology, policy, philanthropy, and education facilitating inclusive tech-based economic development. Currently he is the Managing Partner at 642 Partners where he leads cross-sector engagement and strategies to enhance inclusive tech-based economic development. Previously he was the Director of Inclusive Innovation at VentureWell, where he managed cross-functional teams and cross-sector engagements to drive the development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies, policies, and programs. Recently he was a Fulbright Specialist in Egypt advising the Government of Egypt to spur innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the country. Over the past 10 years he has developed partnerships, programs, and strategies that received more than $30 million in funding from philanthropy, government, and corporations to enhance innovation and entrepreneurship.
Tidwell was also a Google AI TensorFlow Awardee, Global Innovation Fellow and YLAI Fellow with the US State Department, and Education Pioneers Fellow. Universities, corporations, agencies, and foundations have sought his expertise: he has been a guest speaker at Yale University, Stanford University, Guangdong Byu University and Southwestern University of Economics and Finance in China, White House Opportunity Summit, SXSW EDU Summit, and State Department Ecosystem Builder Seminar. He was a joint-board member of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). In 2020, he was selected by the JFK Presidential Library Foundation for the New Frontier Network.
Tidwell is an Advisor to the North Carolina Innovative Development for Economic Advancement Foundation that invests in entrepreneurial support organizations and
early-stage innovators; he is also an advisor to Harvard Business Review, Greenlight Fund, and Black Tech Ventures. Carolina Business Review, a PBS program, selected him as a guest contributor. He is published in IEEE. His undergraduate and graduate studies include IT, Finance, Marketing at Monmouth University, Fordham University Graduate School of Business and UC-Berkeley Law School. His favorite books are Chaos, Making of New Science and Impact of Science on Society.