Zoom Webinar: March 1, 2022

In the past decade, the Deshpande Symposium has recognized over 40 institutions and individuals for their outstanding contributions to entrepreneurship and innovation in higher education. The awardees represent a dedication to expanding entrepreneurship within the curriculum, across their campuses and in their communities. To celebrate the 10th year of the Deshpande Symposium, we have convened a cross-section of past awardees to inform us of their progress, and to share their perspectives on the future of entrepreneurship in higher education, particularly with the dramatic changes and challenges of the past two years. Join us for what promises to be an engaging conversation with some of the prominent thought leaders in the field.

Ji Mi Choi

Vice President, Knowledge Enterprise
Founding Executive Director, J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute
Arizona State University

Prior to joining ASU in 2015, Ji Mi served in various fast-paced and innovative roles at New York University, the Polytechnic University (now the Tandon School of Engineering at NYU), and at Columbia University including for the Earth Institute. A long-time New Yorker by way of Seoul and an avid internationalist, Ji Mi has also served in a leadership role for the United Nations Development Programme and in various capacities for numerous start-up organizations, both not-for-profit and for-profit and has been involved in political campaigns.

Ji Mi serves on the boards of the StartupAZ Foundation, the Co+Hoots Foundation and numerous local and national advisory councils and committees for entrepreneur-supporting organizations and programs and is a regular national speaker on inclusive entrepreneurship

Ji Mi received her B.A. in English literature and communications from Marymount Manhattan College and her M.S. in strategic communications from Columbia University.

Dianne H.B. Welsh

Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Founding Director of the Entrepreneurship Programs at The University of North Carolina Greensboro

Dianne has held three endowed chair and started three entrepreneurship programs/centers. She is the 2015 Fulbright-Hall Distinguished Chair for Entrepreneurship for Central Europe. She has visited or lectured in over 60 countries, including the University of Venda, South Africa where she trained 30 professors in entrepreneurship. She has 115 journal articles, eight books, and over 300 presentations. Dr. Welsh won the Legacy Award from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, the Barbara Hollander Award for Lifetime Contributions to Family Business from the Family Firm Institute, and the Deshpande Foundation 2018 Excellence in Curriculum Innovation in Entrepreneurship Award and Outstanding Contributions to Advancing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award in 2021.

Brad Burke

Managing Director, Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship | Executive Director,
Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers

Brad is responsible for leading the internationally recognized Rice Alliance in its mission to support entrepreneurship education, technology commercialization, and the launch of early stage technology companies in the Houston and Texas region. The Rice Alliance is Rice University’s flagship entrepreneurship initiative launched in 2000, and Brad joined as director of the Rice Alliance in 2001. Since inception, more than 2,950 tech startups have participated in Rice Alliance programs and have raised more than $21.3 billion in funding since inception.

Under his watch, the Rice Business entrepreneurship program has achieved the ranking of the #1 best graduate U.S. entrepreneurship program in the U.S. for three consecutive years in 2020, 2021, and 2022, by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. The school has now been ranked among the top 10 best graduate entrepreneurship programs for 13 straight years (2010 – 2022), one of only three universities to achieve this distinction.

The Rice Alliance hosts the Rice Business Plan Competition, the largest and richest student startup competition in the world, offering more than $1.5 million in prizes each year. The competition has served as the launchpad for more than 255 successful start-ups that have raised more than $3.5 billion in funding.

Brad joined the Rice Alliance from the technology startup Viant. Viant went public in 1999, backed by Kleiner Perkins, Mohr Davidow, and Goldman Sachs. Brad founded the Houston office of Viant in 2000. Prior to Viant, Brad spent 15 years at ExxonMobil across several management positions in financial planning & analysis, marketing, sales, and general management.

He received his MBA from Northwestern (Kellogg), where he was an Austin Scholar and served as president of the Kellogg Student Government. He received his B.S. in business and computer science from Vanderbilt University (magna cum laude).

John MacRitchie

Assistant Vice-President, Zone Learning and Strategic Initiatives
Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

John leads Office of Zone Learning at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada overseeing the 10 innovation zones at Ryerson University and related strategic initiatives in Canada and internationally. Supporting over 350 ventures each year, the zones include the DMZ, the globally top-ranked university-linked incubator, as well as zones supporting ventures in biomedical technology, fashion, design, media, science, engineering, legal technology and social innovation. For students, Zone Learning is an out-of-classroom experience building innovation and entrepreneurial skills and competencies for the 21st century workplace.

John is a founding director of I-INC a national network of Canadian universities dedicated to improving our performance in moving research to market and impact through programs such as Lab2Market. He was recently appointed president of the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE).

Prior to joining Ryerson, John was regional director for an Ontario innovation funding agency. His private sector experience includes over 15 years in business development for large international industrial control systems projects in China, United States, Brazil, Taiwan and Canada.

John hold Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University.

Steve Tello

Vice Provost for Graduate, Online and Professional Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell [2019 Outstanding Contribution to Advancing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award and 2016 Excellence in Student Engagement Award]