Entrepreneurial Business Students Support Wyoming Technology Business Center |
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Feb. 14, 2007 -- A recent donation will fund a University of Wyoming graduate fellowship for students interested in working directly on entrepreneurship activities that benefit Wyoming's economic development.
The John P. (Jack) Ellbogen Foundation recently awarded a $150,000 endowment grant to fund a College of Business graduate fellowship that will support the clients and initiatives of the Wyoming Technology Business Center (WTBC). The Ellbogen Foundation's grant has been matched by the Wyoming endowment challenge program.
Ellbogen Entrepreneurship Fellows will work with the WTBC to practice skills while assisting incubator clients on topics such as business plan development, financing and marketing research, says Brent Hathaway, dean of the College of Business.
"My dad's UW education and entrepreneurial spirit gave him the opportunity to build a successful business in Wyoming," says Mary Ellbogen Garland, Ellbogen Foundation president from Laramie.
She says the grant will provide UW students with an experience to develop their classroom knowledge into "real world" entrepreneurship and to create avenues to live and work in the state.
"This endowment is the second established to strengthen the connections between Wyoming's business school and the WTBC," Hathaway says.
UW alumnus Russ Mortenson (B.S. 1971, business administration) established a similar endowment fund in May 2005 to create an entrepreneurship fund in memory of his parents, Bud and Bing Mortenson, who in the mid 1950s opened a hardware store in Laramie. His gift also was matched by the Wyoming endowment challenge program.
Mortenson jump-started the endowment last spring, allowing the college to assign MBA student Ryan Ford, as the first intern to work with Jon Benson, CEO of the WTBC.
"Having Ryan work in the incubator has been a super addition to the support we're able to provide our clients," Benson says. "I look forward to having the business college on our team as we work together to help entrepreneurs grow technology-related companies in Wyoming."
Hathaway recognizes the impact of the contributions and the importance of the partnership with the business incubator.
"Entrepreneurship and new venture development is one of the college's focus areas. Our intention here is to feed into the state's economic development and make sure our graduates leave with the skills and confidence to start a small business, return to an existing family business, create or work for a "start-up" venture, or purchase an existing business," he says.
Hathaway says the gifts are a tribute to the donors and will have a long-lasting impact on the state.
"I remember Russ Mortenson telling me about working in his dad's hardware store, learning every small business task from inventory control to customer relations to employee management to bicycle assembly. It was an intense early schooling in entrepreneurship," he says. "Likewise, while I never knew Jack Ellbogen personally, I heard such wonderful things from his family, friends and former colleagues. He was an astute businessman, a generous philanthropist, an avid supporter of UW and the state of Wyoming, and a consummate entrepreneur. The College of Business is fortunate and humbled by this support."
Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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