In the final event of this year’s Bucknell Forum, co-founders of Jump Platforms, baseball player Alex Rodriguez and Bucknell alumni Marc Lore ’93 and Jordy Leiser ’06 will discuss entrepreneurship, emerging technologies, the visionary mindset and leadership in Hislop Auditorium on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 10:30 a.m. The conversation around this year’s theme “A World in Transition” will be moderated by Michelle Roehm, Kenneth W. Freeman Professor & Dean of the Freeman College of Management.
Jump Platforms is an end-to-end fan experience and ticketing platform for live sports and entertainment, which students may recognize as the software behind Bucknell Hoops, used to get tickets for both Bucknell Bison basketball teams. Bucknell is actually piloting Jump, which will expand to include professional sports team clients and venues this year. Currently the company has nearly 50 employees and has raised $35 million in funding from top-tier Silicon Valley investors.
Rodriguez, in addition to being a 14-time MLB All-Star and World Series Champion in 2009 with the New York Yankees, is the founder, chairman and CEO of A-Rod Corp., an investment firm which focuses in the real estate, sports and entertainment sectors. His investment portfolio now spans real estate, hospitality and venture capital. He is also a strategic adviser to the Professional Fighters League and the CEO of Slam Corp, a special purpose acquisition company.
Rodriguez is also an Emmy Award-winning MLB analyst for Fox Sports, a financial mentor to former athletes on CNBC’s “Back in the Game” and co-host of the Bloomberg video series “The Deal,” in which he interviews CEOs, entrepreneurs and sports icons. On top of all this, Rodriguez is on the board of the Boards and Girls Club of America, also being inducted into its National Alumni Hall of Fame, and the Board of Trustees for the University of Miami.
Lore is the founder and CEO of Wonder Group, a company which is pioneering “Fast Fine” dining, operates multiple delivery-first restaurants and is creating a mealtime app. In addition to working together on Jump Platforms, Lore and Rodriguez have been members of the ownership group of the Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA) and Minnesota Lynx (WNBA) teams since spring 2021. Prior to this, Lore started and sold four companies, including Jet.com, which Walmart acquired in 2016 for $3.3 billion. Lore was the president and CEO of Walmart U.S. e-commerce until 2021, and had previously co-founded and was CEO of Quidsi, an e-commerce website parent company.
Leiser is the CEO of Jump Platforms, which was started in October 2021. He began his career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan where he focused on transactions for private equity-backed consumer brands. Lesier left J.P. Morgan to co-found and serve as CEO of Stella Connect, where he was until the company was acquired by Medallia in late 2020, who then renamed the software Medallia Agent Connect. Medallia Agent Connect is an enterprise software built to support customer service teams’ engagement and performance, used by clients including Walmart, Mercedes-Benz and Warby Parker. Leiser has also been a member of Bucknell’s Board of Trustees since 2019.
The discussion between these three co-founders will end at 11:30 a.m., leaving time for attendees to arrive before tip-off the Bison Men’s Basketball game against Army at noon.
Seating for the event will be limited, but doors will open to Hislop at 10 a.m., and there will be overflow seating in the Case Classroom (104 Holmes Hall), which will open at 10:15 a.m. Tickets will be required for seating in both spaces.
A limited number of free tickets to this Forum event will be available to Bucknell faculty, staff, students and retirees on Thursday, Feb. 20, at any Campus Box Office location or online between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Only one ticket will be distributed per person and a valid Bucknell University ID is required. Any remaining tickets will be available to the general public on Friday, Feb. 21, at the Campus Box Office.
