Julie Lenzer Kirk harnesses her experience
as a successful and award-winning IT entrepreneur to assist
others in realizing their dream of entrepreneurship and taking
their already-established entrepreneurial companies to the next
level. Her book, "The ParentPreneur
Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business"
(John Wiley & Sons) is available online on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and in bookstores across the globe.
Ms. Kirk is CEO and Chief Muse of Path Forward International, which helps entrepreneurs, companies, and communities leverage innovation to drive economic empowerment.
Path Forward was awarded Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise in Maryland for 2008 and has been certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).
An adjunct professor in innovation and entrepreneurship, she is also in her fifth year with the NSF-funded ACTiVATE program at the University of Maryland , Baltimore County. Through this program, which was named “Best Specialty Entrepreneurship Program” by the US Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, she helps experienced women start businesses by licensing technologies from universities and government labs.
Ms. Kirk's activities in women's empowerment are not limited to the United States – she also works internationally. She has taught and spoken on 4 continents about leadership, business start-up and success, and work/life balance.
She founded her first company, Applied Creative Technologies, Inc. (ACT), in 1995 as an IT solutions firm focusing on manufacturing operations and inventory control. With Fortune 500 clients, she grew the company to multi-millions in revenues, winning several national awards for workplace excellence. Through her 10-year leadership, ACT developed and commercialized ACTrax , a leading-edge production and warehouse management system, for which she negotiated the sale in 2005.
Ms. Kirk received the Athena Award in 2004 as recognition for her contributions to other business women and the community and was named to Maryland's Top 100 Women 2005 and 2008 sponsored by The Daily Record . She is a member of the National Center for Women and Information Technology's Entrepreneurial Alliance, a mentor for Count Me In's Make Mine a $Million Business program, and a business advisor for Women Entrepreneurs, Inc. Frequently quoted in the media – from Entrepreneur to Redbook and Family Circle Magazines - and having appeared in numerous broadcast interviews, she also writes a column for Enterprising Women Magazine.
Ms. Kirk graduated from Texas A&M University
with a B.S. in Computer Science and participates in and leads
numerous community organizations and events. She currently resides
in the Baltimore / Washington D.C. metro area with her husband and two children.
