Entrepreneurship ‘evangelist’ joining UCD

One of the country’s best-known experts on entrepreneurship, Carl Schramm, will teach at  UC Davis Graduate School of Management as a visiting professor during the spring quarter.

Dubbed the “evangelist of entrepreneurship” by the British magazine The Economist, Schramm in 2012 stepped down from his role as president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the largest foundation in the world devoted to advancing entrepreneurship.

Schramm has since been named University Professor at Syracuse University, the 16th person to hold that title, and published the latest in a series of best-selling books: “Better Capitalism: Renewing the Entrepreneurial Strength of the American Economy” with fellow economist Robert Litan.

“I was compelled to accept the offer because I admire Chancellor Linda Katehi’s leadership in the area of academic studies of entrepreneurship and I knew of the good work professor Andrew Hargadon has done in the field of energy and innovation,” Schramm said in a UCD news release. “I knew, by coming to UC Davis, I would have colleagues working on interesting frontiers in entrepreneurship.”

Dean Steven Currall said he was “thrilled” to “offer our students access to one of the world’s greatest minds in entrepreneurship and innovation.”

Schramm will be paid $25,000 to teach one course open to students from across campus and work with faculty on research as the first Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca visiting professor in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Arthur Ciocca, the founder of Livermore-based The Wine Group Inc., and his wife, Carlyse, have committed $500,000 to fund the endowment — the first of its kind for the management school. Ciocca praised Schramm as “somebody who’s been there, done it, taught it and lives it.”

“He can bring real-world, practical experience to the classroom and in a way that is simple, understandable, practical and powerful for everyday use by students,” Ciocca said in the news release.

Currall said that he hoped Schramm will return each year for one term to teach a course.

Schramm pens a column, “Messy Capitalism” for Forbes magazine and writes for the “Bush Center Blog” for the George W. Bush Institute. He is a fellow of the institute’s 4 Percent Growth Project, aimed at doubling the country’s economic growth rate.

Working with the Obama administration, Schramm co-founded the Startup America Partnership, a private-sector effort intended to increase the development and success of innovative, high-growth U.S. firms. He chaired a U.S. Department of Commerce panel on measuring American innovation during the Bush presidency.

In 2005, Schramm and future British Prime Minister Gordon Brown co-founded “Global Entrepreneurship Week.” It has since spread to 170 countries.

Under Schramm, the efforts of the Kauffman Foundation, fueled by a $2 billion endowment, included policy research, advocacy and grant partnerships. It launched or expanded programs in such areas as the formation of businesses in minority communities, charter school education and the transfer of intellectual property from universities to the marketplace.

Schramm holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin and law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. His early stops included the National Commission of State Workmen’s Compensation Laws, the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Senate Committee on Human Resources. He later taught health policy and management for 15 years at Johns Hopkins University.

Schramm has founded or co-founded five companies in health care, finance and information technology industries, including HCIA Inc., which develops data systems for health care companies. As executive vice president at Fortis, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, he created the first health insurance plan for recent college graduates.

— Reach Cory Golden at cgolden@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8046. Follow him on Twitter at @cory_golden

Art Ciocca appears as a guest speaker at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. Courtesy photo

Carl Schramm. Courtesy photo

Cory Golden

The Enterprise's higher-education and congressional reporter. http://about.me/cory_golden

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