Since earning my Ph.D. at Cornell, I have had the honor of teaching MBA & Undergraduate Entrepreneurship and Strategy courses at seven world-class universities.
I also have significant personal entrepreneurial experience in the Education, Hospitality, Sports, and Entertainment industries myself. In fact, I always tell my students that producing films and owning a motel have given me the best management education I could have ever imagined since I was personally responsible for every aspect of strategy, sales, marketing, accounting, finance, operations, and HR!
I have a track record as an excellent teacher, researcher, colleague, and program builder. I consistently earn teaching evaluations in the top 10% of my peers - and frequently have the highest rated MBA courses. I have authored twenty plus academic papers including eight articles that were published in top-tier journals. I’ve also developed and written several entrepreneurship case studies.
Recently, I have created several new and innovative multimedia resources. One is an entrepreneurship-focused feature film (100 min). In addition, I produced over twenty short films (5 min each) for McGraw-Hill Education. Professors in Business Law and Entrepreneurship classes around the globe are currently using these films in their classes.
As the Founding Director of the University at Buffalo Entrepreneurship Program, I had the pleasure of teaching and impacting 30% of our students over 10 years. We started nearly 20 MBA driven businesses, many of which generate over a million dollars of revenue annually. Not surprisingly, numerous international students went back to their home countries including Singapore, Brazil, Canada, & China and started successful businesses there, too.
One highly innovative US company that was started from scratch by students I taught and mentored just had a $40+ million exit (with no venture capital obligations). Another, where I placed my students as employees #3 & #4, was recently acquired for $220 million. I have also advised and assisted a number of successful university-driven spin outs.
Given my deep experience in academia, as an entrepreneur, and in the private sector (with Fortune 500 firms), I am adept and comfortable in any environment: from classrooms to boardrooms to laboratories to farms to factories.
Helping bright and ambitious young people succeed is my calling. I think that explains why I have derived such a tremendous amount of joy from providing the leadership necessary to enable so many faculty and students realize their entrepreneurial dreams and achieve personal fulfillment.
