• Bloomberg, Monday, January 31, 2011 3:56 PM

As part of President Barack Obama's plan to promote entrepreneurship, AOL co-founder Steve Case will lead an administration-sanctioned campaign to support private sector investments in startup companies and small businesses. "In his Jan. 25 State of the Union address Obama said part of his plan to 'out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world' includes more investments in education, technology and infrastructure," Bloomberg reports. The initiative includes pledges from companies including Facebook Inc., Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and International Business Machines Corp. to increase their investments in startup companies.

Carl Schramm, the president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit promoting entrepreneurship, will be a founding board member of the private-sector led campaign. At an event announcing the initiative on Monday, Case will be joined by entrepreneurs, business leaders and administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Small Business Administrator Karen Mills, Director of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling.

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