Steve Mariotti

Steve Mariotti is the founder and former CEO of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and an advocate for entrepreneurs worldwide. His books include The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business and An Entrepreneur's Manifesto, which makes a convincing case for the power of entrepreneurship education to combat poverty, terrorism, and totalitarianism. Mariotti is also the author of award-winning junior, high-school, and college textbooks on entrepreneurship and small business management. He is a popular Huffington Post blogger.

In 1982, Mariotti left a successful business career to become a public high-school teacher in tough New York City neighborhoods like East New York, Bed-Study, and Fort Apache in the South Bronx. Frustrated at first by his rowdy classrooms, Mariotti discovered he could motivate even his most challenging students by teaching them how to run a small business. This experience inspired him to create NFTE in 1987 to bring entrepreneurship education to low-income youth, and empower them to create pathways out of poverty. Today, NFTE is widely considered the leading provider of entrepreneurship education to low-income youth worldwide.