About Rod D. Martin
Rod D. Martin, founder and CEO of The Martin Organization, is a technology entrepreneur, futurist, hedge fund manager, author and conservative activist from Destin, Florida. Fox Business News calls him a “tech guru”, Britain’s Guardian labeled him a “philosopher-capitalist”, Gawker called him “another of Peter Thiel’s brilliant nonconformists,” and George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management introduced him as “America’s foremost [conservative] expert on online politics.”
Dr. Martin is an investor, director or officer in numerous ventures, specializing in the Internet and biotech spaces. He is especially noted for his role as a member of the pre-IPO startup team (specifically, Special Counsel to the CEO) at PayPal.com, a Silicon Valley legend, which is today the dominant payments provider on the Internet. Launched during the dot-com bust by a team whose average age was just 23, PayPal amassed more than 25 million users in just over two years and was the first dot-com to successfully transition its user base to a paying status through use of the “Freemium” model. PayPal successfully drove giant competitors such as Western Union, AOL and Citibank out of its market and conducted the first successful post-bust technology pure-play IPO, ultimately merging with eBay for more than $1.5 billion. More important still, PayPal enabled an entrepreneurial revolution, helping to create literally millions of small businesses around the world, and provided a previously impossible level of monetary security for the masses by providing free offshore accounts denominated in the user’s choice of major currencies.
PayPal’s alumni — the so-called “PayPal Mafia” – have been profiled in numerous publications including Forbes, Fortune, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for their disproportionate influence on the culture and direction of Silicon Valley and the Internet. PayPal’s former employees have launched more successful companies in a shorter time than those of virtually any other company in history. Some of the more famous of these include YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Yelp, Geni, Yammer, Rapleaf, Quantcast, CapLinked, Slide, Powerset, Palantir, Ironport, Xoom, Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
Following his wife’s successful bout with breast cancer, Dr. Martin and partner Jim Czirr led the takeover and restructuring of Galectin Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GALT), the world’s pioneer in the area of 
galectin technologies, where he currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. GALT’s lead candidate drug promises to greatly enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy agents while nearly eliminating their side-effects. The company is currently entering human trials with a drug which has successfully reversed liver and kidney fibrosis in animals.
Among other ventures, Dr. Martin is also Chairman of the Board of FlowPay, the award-winning industry leader in mobile payments solutions for churches and non-profits; a founder and managing partner in the 10 X Fund, a technology-focused venture fund; an advisor to CapLinked, a collaborative platform for entrepreneurs, private investors and advisors to find each other, build relationships, and transact business; and a founder of Agincourt Ventures, “a collaboration of several Apple and PayPal alumni making magic”. Dr. Martin is also a founder and Executive Chairman of Advanced Search Laboratories, which is developing an entire new generation of internet search tools.
In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Dr. Martin is one of America’s leading experts on the conjunction of technology and politics. He serves as President of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, and previously served as Policy Director for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. He is also a member of the Gold Circle and Board of Governors of the Council for National Policy, a group of top conservative leaders from around the United States; and a member of the Arlington Group, a coalition of America’s principal Christian activist leadership, and former chairman of its National Security Committee. Presently, along with several colleagues from PayPal and Apple, he also leads The Vanguard Project, which seeks to develop a state-of-the-art technology platform for driving and empowering large-scale activism.
Dr. Martin studied political and economic thought at Cambridge University in Great Britain and is an award-winning civil rights scholar. He was elected student body president at Baylor Law School, has served as faculty for the Alliance Defense Fund’s Blackstone Fellowship program, belongs to the Federalist Society, and serves on the boards of several pro-liberty public interest legal groups, including the Gotham Legal Foundation in New York and the Everglades Legal Foundation in his home state of Florida.
Dr. Martin is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (General Joseph Martin Chapter, named for his fifth great grandfather), chairs the Grace Hall Shakespeare Society, and holds Life Memberships in the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America. He is deeply involved in charitable work aimed at alleviating global poverty, has raised significant sums for private K-12 scholarships for disadvantaged children in the United States, and serves on the boards of several charitable foundations, including the Board of Governors of Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) and the Board of Regents at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
A noted futurist, activist, and thought-leader, Dr. Martin’s extensive writings have appeared in such publications as FoxNews.com, Human Events, The Daily Caller, WorldNetDaily, The American Spectator, World magazine, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Manchester Union-Leader, the San Francisco Examiner and Diario Las Américas, and he has been featured on numerous national radio and television news programs. He has written or edited several books, including Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (Thomas Graves Edition, 2011), The Federalist Papers (Thomas Graves Edition, 2010),
and Thank You, President Bush: Reflections on the War onTerror, Defense of the Family, and Revival of the Economy (2004). He also serves as Series General Editor, Thomas Graves Classics in the History of American Liberty, and his Visions of America and The Imperative of Excellence are forthcoming. He is married to Sherri, and is the proud father of Dolly, Archer and Haley.
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Rod Martin wears with uncommon grace an uncanny ability to link his vigorous faith to the practical challenges of both the business world and the political arena. Yet the respect he shows for others carries a warmth and modesty that are both too rare among those who are strong advocates of feisty positions.
Rod is one of our nation’s leading minds. He’s smart, original, and very committed—a combination that one rarely finds.
I am proud to have been Rod Martin’s friend for a quarter century, and I can tell you that he is one of the finest men and most outstanding leaders in our church and in our country today. He has a knack for turning everything he touches to success.
Rod’s achievements pale beside his character and his brilliance. He sees what others can’t. He leads when others won’t.
Rod Martin is a born leader and an outstanding political mind. Anyone who takes him on is going to have a serious fight on their hands.
If Rod Martin represents the next generation of leaders, America has nothing to worry about.
America badly needs more leaders who really get the future. We need more Rod Martins.
Rod Martin is one of those impressive Renaissance types whose genius spans politics, economics, philosophy, technology and history. These are the qualities of a truly visionary entrepreneur. Rod has them in spades.
Rod Martin is a mentor, a wise counselor, a brilliant strategist, a visionary, and a builder. He is one of a precious few souls the world could use far more of.
Rod Martin is the kind of dynamic leader who has the knowledge, ability and experience to lead us successfully into the 21st Century. His vision for America is compelling.
Rod Martin is a Reaganite-Thatcherite conservative…[and] a man who has spent much of his life ministering to and working for the benefit of others. I know Rod as an advocate for freedom, a leader who understands the real changes we need in Washington, and who has the drive and ability to make those changes happen.
Rod is humble yet brilliant, a conservative to his very core and a man of love and compassion. He is not easy to categorize; but with penetrating clarity, he illuminates the world around us, and we are both stirred and enlightened.
A leader and a servant, in public life and in private, Rod Martin strides at the top of his profession, and has nowhere to go but up. He is in the truest sense of the word ‘outstanding’.
Rod Martin has been a consistent advocate and a real conservative mover and shaker. He’s not new to this business. He’s got a great history and a great future.
Rod Martin is a man of uncommon vision and character. Ever since I first worked alongside Rod in the early days of PayPal, I’ve been struck by his powerful vision for the future. Rod understands the intersection of technology, politics and culture in a way that few others do.
Rod Martin is a cornucopian entrepreneur and eutropic thinker whose influence radiates through an array of companies, institutions, movements and churches. A renaissance American, he is also a prolific friend of freedom and faith around the globe.
The future of technology is the future of America. Rod Martin sees that future clearly, and also sees how to shape it for the betterment of all. He is firmly rooted in the traditions of faith and patriotism that have made America great. That’s why he has made, and will make, so many outstanding contributions in so many areas.
Rod Martin and [former Howard Dean campaign manager] Joe Trippi are America’s two foremost experts on online politics.
Rod Martin is not only effective and efficient, but he is also perceptive, wise and gracious. He gets things done. He is a great friend and a great ally.
Rod Martin has a unique combination of personal integrity, economic acumen and entrepreneurship. He is a man to be trusted and his business foresight is a matter of public record.
One of America’s most brilliant, creative individuals, my friend Rod Martin exhibits the finest traits of the global entrepreneur.
Rod is one of the sharpest, most gracious men I know, and one of the most gifted political thinkers today. His ability to analyze issues and communicate thoughtful insights on them have earned him the respect of people across the political spectrum.
Rod Martin is one of America’s finest young minds.
Rod Martin is a modern day philosopher-statesman. He is a capitalist intellectual, a conservative iconoclast, a gentle adversary and a kind prophet. He inspires us towards a fresh national vision built upon the original founding principles.
My friend Rod Martin brings to politics and government incredible experience and insight, including how to use very advanced technology to motivate huge groups of people on an everyday basis.
Rod Martin is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished thought leaders at the interface of technological innovation and entrepreneurship today. He is a wonderful mentor, a humble role model, and a deep inspiration for the next generation of scientific innovators and entrepreneurs.
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