Teaching Entrepreneurship Around the World

Dr. Smilor and the Beyster Institute have developed an innovative program that identifies, develops and sustains a new group of business leaders in developing countries including Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen. Listen to how the Beyster Institute is helping to grow successful enterprises.

The Beyster Institute's mission is to advance the use of entrepreneurship and employee ownership to build stronger, higher performing enterprises nationally and internationally. Launched in 2002 by the Foundation for Enterprise Development, the Institute is now part of the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego, serving as its key center for entrepreneurial thought and activity. It is the only such university-based center to integrate both employee ownership and entrepreneurship.

Before joining the Beyster Institute and the Foundation for Enterprise Development, Dr. Smilor was vice president of the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In that capacity, he helped build one of the most prominent organizations promoting entrepreneurship in the United States. Before joining the Kauffman Center, Dr. Smilor was a tenured professor at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Texas - Austin. He also served as the executive director of the IC2 Institute at UT, which became an internationally recognized think-tank for entrepreneurship and economic development. Dr. Smilor has also been very involved in the writing and editing of several books and articles on entrepreneurship, economic development and technology transfer and commercialization.