Month: April 2017

UT Dallas, Here I Come!

For those who know me, you know that I began taking steps to transition from my long-time owner-operator role with new ventures studio Powershift Group a few years ago, after turning age 50.

It began when I lucked into the opportunity to teach the New Venture Creation class for the St. Edward’s University MBA program, as an adjunct professor.

While it was more work than I had expected, it was also quite rewarding. Enough so, in fact, that I re-upped for additional classes, ultimately teaching the New Venture Creation class again, as well as MBA classes in Branding & Promotion, Global Business, and the MBA Capstone class.

Along the way, I began seeing a transition path from the “all in” nature of the work demanded by the executive roles I served in various Powershift Group-related entities, to one where I could spend more time on the things I most enjoyed:

  1. mentoring first-time founders and students of entrepreneurship,
  2. using my network and experience to help promising founders, and
  3. promoting their ventures, where possible, to help them succeed.

It felt like a university setting, or a role with a heavy university affiliation, might be the ideal place for this career transition.

I won’t take you through the search process, because it spanned 5 years with a couple of well-intentioned starts-and-stops along the way, in pursuit of the best fit.

But, over the 2016-17 Christmas/New Year’s holidays, I finally found what turned out to be what feels like the right place to be, with UT Dallas.

Rather than going on-and-on about UTD, the School of Management, or the particular group that I lead as executive director — the Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship — I’ll the links below do the talking.

While we still have our home in Austin, I now live in Dallas and urge all of my colleagues in Austin and around the world to come visit, any time!