On July 1, the Entrepreneurship Program will become part of the MIS department, bringing with it new faculty, courses and activities.
Formerly a part of Terry’s management department, the Entrepreneurship Program teaches students to identify real-world opportunities, apply business models, and assess the feasibility of ideas.
Operating at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels, the program includes offerings like UGA’s Next Top Entrepreneur, The Terry Innovation Fund and the Silicon Valley Fellows Program, which are designed to help students launch their own businesses and better understand the complex world of startups.
Instructors Chris Hanks and David Sutherland, both successful businessmen with proven track records, teach courses that encompass not only the basics of entrepreneurship, but also innovation management and critical design thinking.
Hanks has owned multiple businesses, spanning the worlds of music, e-commerce publishing and exporting. A certified business appraiser, he is the co-author of a bestselling book on low-risk entrepreneurship, and is active in the funding and franchising of startups.
Sutherland is the founder and managing director of Launch Institute, a technology scouting firm. He has been an entrepreneur, a corporate executive and a trusted advisor to a set of companies that has achieved significant growth. He holds a PhD from the University of Virginia.
In their classes, students don’t just learn from books. They’re forced to compete in the real-world economy. For example, students on the MBA Business Innovation Track tackle projects for real-world clients like Coca-Cola, Toyota and the Centers for Disease Control. Past projects have included designing new business models, social media strategies and gaming applications.
The move will bring the expertise and resources of the MIS department together with the innovative offerings of the Entrepreneurship Program and will help the department to align closer with UGA President Jere Morehead’s strategic goal of increasing our efforts toward economic development.