Dartmouth’s Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame to Honor Two Alumni
The Magnuson Center will welcome Chris Meledandri and Lew Cirne into the Hall of Fame at the September Dartmouth Entrepreneurs Forum.
The Hollywood producer responsible for the most successful animated film series ever and the code-writing executive who created one of the world’s leading platforms for monitoring and enhancing web and mobile software are being honored as the newest members of Dartmouth’s Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame.
Chris Meledandri ’81, founder and CEO of Illumination, and Lew Cirne ’93, founder of New Relic, will be inducted into the hall at a dinner on September 5 in San Francisco, and both will participate as speakers the following day, September 6, as part of this fall’s Dartmouth Entrepreneurs Forum. The events, organized by the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, provide hundreds of Dartmouth alumni, students, faculty, and staff with opportunities to gain immeasurable insights into the entrepreneurial ecosystem and to network with one another.
The Magnuson Center established the Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame, now in its second year, to celebrate the Dartmouth tradition of graduating venture-minded individuals while recognizing alums who have founded successful enterprises and who are inspiring future generations to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.
Meledandri and Cirne, selected by a committee of the Magnuson Center Board of Advisors, will be the fifth and sixth alumni inducted into the hall.
“We are thrilled to recognize Chris and Lew for the leadership and innovative thinking they have brought to their fields,” says Andrea Johnson ’91, chair of the Magnuson Center Board of Advisors. “Dartmouth has a proud history of graduating entrepreneurial thinkers and doers across the spectrum of professions. Nothing provides a better foundation for future entrepreneurs than the critical thinking skills that are at the heart of a Dartmouth education.”
Both Meledandri and Cirne will participate in fireside chats during the Entrepreneurs Forum in addition to delivering more formal remarks during the Hall of Fame ceremony.
“Lew and Chris reflect our exceptionally talented, diverse, and powerful entrepreneurial network,” says Jamie Coughlin, the Magnuson Center’s founding executive director. “Aspiring entrepreneurs of all kinds will learn so much when they hear from Lew, Chris, and dozens of other Dartmouth alumni at the forum who have launched and navigated successful ventures. The insights and wisdom shared by our speakers will not only inform but will inspire.”
Chris Meledandri, Illumination
Upon graduation from Dartmouth, Meledandri headed west to 20th Century Fox to work as an assistant to producer Daniel Melnick. Working first in live-action movies, he soon made his mark as president of 20th Century Fox Animation, where he oversaw the production of movies such as Anastasia and Ice Age.
Illumination, which Meledandri founded in 2007 in partnership with NBC Universal, produces the most successful animated franchise of all time, the Despicable Me/Minions series, as well as the movies Sing, The Secret Life of Pets, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and adaptations of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Lorax. Illumination’s business also includes the creation of multiple attractions at Universal Studios global theme parks and mobile games such as Minion Rush, which has been downloaded more than one billion times.
“To be recognized for not only my creative pursuits, but specifically for my entrepreneurial success is truly remarkable and I am extremely grateful for the honor. There is a greater sense of satisfaction when you’ve started something from nothing and hired every key member of a team and built the business strategy,” says Meledandri. “The sense of striking out and challenging oneself to build something new—there’s a great deal of fulfilment in that.”
Lew Cirne, New Relic
Cirne has been fascinated with software since his parents gave him a Commodore VIC-20 computer when he was 12 years old. A computer science major at Dartmouth, he joined Apple as an engineer, followed by a stint at Hummingbird Communications. Eager to take on the challenge of optimizing software performance in real time, in 1998 Cirne founded Wily Technology, a company dedicated to automating the process of measuring the integrity of software code. He sold the company to CA Technologies, Inc., eight years later for $375 million.
In 2008, Cirne established New Relic, an anagram of his name, soon recognized as a leading provider of web application performance management. The company provides businesses with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that monitors, analyzes, and enhances their web and mobile software as customers are using it. New Relic went public in 2014 and was acquired by Francisco Partners and TPG in 2023. The company today serves more than 16,000 customers, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
Unlike most of his tech CEO peers, Cirne remains a builder. “Building software remains an incredibly joyful creative process for me, as is company-building. I am incredibly honored to be recognized and included in the Dartmouth Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame, and to showcase that technically minded individuals can build companies of scale and impact,” Cirne says.
The Magnuson Center launched the Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame in 2023 by honoring four inaugural inductees: James Coulter ’82, cofounder and executive chairman of TPG; Keith Dunleavy ’91, founder and CEO of Inovalon; Steven Hafner ’91, cofounder and CEO of Kayak; and Shonda Rhimes ’91, TV producer, author, and founder of Shondaland.
Visit the Magnuson Center website to register or learn more about the Entrepreneurs Forum.
