Professor of Entrepreneurship
Director, Tom Love Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development
C. S. Trosper Chair
Keith Brigham’s primary research and teaching interests focus on entrepreneurial cognition, temporal orientation, and family business. His research has been published in journals such as Business Ethics Quarterly, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Family Business Review, The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Business Venturing, and Organizational Research Methods. He is an associate editor at Family Business Review and serves on the editorial review boards of three Financial Times top-rated journals. He has won numerous research awards and awards for outstanding teaching and service. He earned his Ph.D. in entrepreneurship from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MBA from Oklahoma City University.
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship
Executive Director of Sooner Launch Pad
Before joining the University of Oklahoma, Ron Bolen founded and was managing director of da3co, an energy-focused merchant banking operation based in Houston, Texas. With over 19 years of experience in the energy sector, Bolen has 11 years of direct experience in private equity investing in both the power and oil and gas segments. He co-founded Invictus Energy Group, LLC, an international power project finance venture specializing in power optimization opportunities. The venture was sold to a large private equity group, where he continued as managing director of the firm’s energy investment practice. While in other positions, his professional efforts have had a significant international flavor with extensive work in south and southeast Asia, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union. He has served the energy sector in numerous capacities, including law, investment banking, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. He holds a BBA in finance and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma. He also received an MBA with majors in both finance and taxation from New York University.
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
Russ Browder’s primary research interest concerns the roles of technology and learning in entrepreneurship and innovation. He studies these topics in various contexts, including emerging digital technologies, the maker movement, and crisis response. His research has been published in the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Academy of Management Discoveries, and Journal of Small Business Management. Before joining OU, he completed his Ph.D. in entrepreneurship and MDiv at Baylor University. He received an International MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, as a Fulbright Scholar. His industry experience includes decades as a global marketing leader in healthcare IT, medical devices, and the nonprofit healthcare sector. He teaches global entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial leadership at the undergraduate and MBA levels at OU.
Professor
Michael F. Price Chair in Entrepreneurship
Center for Entrepreneurship Academic Director
Lowell Busenitz teaches entrepreneurship courses at the undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. student levels. He has coached and mentored many students and founding teams in their development of business plans for new startups. His research focuses on how entrepreneurs make decisions, the development of new venture opportunities, and the garnering of resources for new startups. He is among a select group of researchers who have an established reputation in entrepreneurship and is one of the top 10 most cited entrepreneurship scholars. His research has appeared in the leading journals in the management and entrepreneurship fields. He has received numerous awards for teaching excellence. He earned his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.
Professor Emeritus of Entrepreneurship
Robert Dauffenbach's teaching interests include quantitative analysis, business economics, operations management, and information systems. He has published in a number of professional and academic journals and reports, including International Journal of Manpower, Journal of Economics, Review of Regional Economics and Business, Journal of Management, Journal of Labor Research, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Journal of Economics and Business, Educational Resources Information Center, Journal of Economic Development, Measuring and Forecasting Engineering Personal Requirements, Oklahoma Quarterly Economic Forecast, Oklahoma Business Bulletin, Oklahoma Economic Outlook, Science and Engineering Manpower in Energy: Labor Market Issues and Outlook, Scientific and Technical Personnel in the 1990s: An Examination of Issues and Information Needs, Energy and the Southwest Economy and The Engineering Degree Conferral Process: Analysis, Monitoring, and Projects, among others. He has served as a reviewer and editor for a number of professional organizations and publications, as well as president of the Association for University Business and Economic Research.
Executive Director, Entrepreneurial Law Center
Lecturer
David Kinsinger is an attorney and executive director of the OU Entrepreneurial Law Center and a lecturer focusing on corporate innovation, business law, and intellectual property protection and exploitation. He has more than 30 years of experience representing corporations on intellectual property matters and corporate transactions, including more than 15 years at L-3 Communications, where he managed a company portfolio of more than 1,000 U.S. patents, as well as budgets, settlement negotiations, and oversight of all IP-related litigation matters and threats. Kinsinger has extensive experience drafting and negotiating IP-related terms and conditions in government and commercial contracts and licensing agreements, as well as working with open-source software compliance and cybersecurity. In 2014, he was a keynote speaker when NIST and the USPTO unveiled their joint Cybersecurity Framework in Palo Alto, California. Before L-3, he served as deputy chief patent counsel for Raytheon Company, and before that was a patent and licensing specialist for Phillips Petroleum Company. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1989. He received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the OU College of Engineering in 1986. He is a Oklahoma Bar Association member and licensed to practice with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Professor Emeritus of Entrepreneurship
Tom Lumpkin’s research and teaching interests include entrepreneurial orientation, social entrepreneurship, and family business. He is a globally recognized scholar whose research has been published in journals such as the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. He is a co-editor of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and serves on the editorial boards of five leading international journals. He was the 2009 recipient of the Foundational Paper Award from the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management for his highly influential contribution to entrepreneurship research. A paper based on that research won the 2015 Greif Research Impact Award at the Academy of Management. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington and MBA from the University of Southern California. Before becoming a professor, he founded and operated two Virginia enterprises. He served as assistant treasurer of the City of Fairfax, Virginia, and treasurer and business manager of Floyd Agricultural Energy Coop, a Virginia start-up.
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship
Michael F. Price Professor of Entrepreneurship
Todd W. Moss is the Michael F. Price Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Tom Love Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. His research focuses on the intersections of entrepreneurship and social responsibility/sustainability. His work has appeared in outlets such as Academy of Management Journal, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, among others. He also serves on the editorial boards of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Journal of Business Venturing. Before his career in academia, he worked at Ford Motor Company in various product strategy and engineering assignments. He earned a Ph.D. in business administration with an emphasis in strategy and entrepreneurship from Texas Tech University in 2011. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and an MBA, all from Brigham Young University.
Associate Professor
An economist by training, Saleh Sahabeh Tabrizy joined the Tom Love Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Fall 2021, having served as a faculty member in the OU Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences Department of Economics from Fall 2015 to Spring 2021. His primary research interest is in international economics. He is also interested in the economics of development, innovation, and growth. His research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including The World Economy, Open Economies Review, Southern Economic Journal, Review of Development Economics, and Economics of Innovation and New Technology. Tabrizy currently teaches graduate-level courses in economics and econometrics. He is also on the editorial review board for Journal of African Business, published by Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an ASC in international economic policy research from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, an M.Sc. in international economics and finance from the Otto-Von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, and a B.A. in economics from Allameh Tabataba'i University.
Instructor of Entrepreneurship
Originally from Brazil, Bruno Teles graduated from Universidade Federal de Sergipe with a law degree and worked from 2001 to 2009 as the attorney in chief of the utility company of his state, ENERGISA. He came to the U.S. to earn an MBA with a concentration in finance from Oral Roberts University, where he graduated with honors and received the Student Leadership Award. He taught marketing and entrepreneurship courses at ORU for six years before returning to industry as the vice president of finance for Bob Moore Auto Group. Currently, Teles develops social actions for the Moore family, and his main area of work is how to integrate social causes into business models. He has had the opportunity to develop projects in Zambia, Burkina Faso, Spain, Uruguay, and Brazil.
Instructor of Entrepreneurship & Economic Development
Executive Director, Tom Love Innovation Hub
Tom Wavering joined the University of Oklahoma in September 2016 as the founding Executive Director of the Tom Love Innovation Hub (I-Hub). As a national expert in the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, Wavering founded and led the I-Hub’s statewide Oklahoma Catalyst Programs through funding from the state (e.g., OCAST) and federal (e.g., SBA) partners. He is an accomplished researcher, educator, and executive, leading technology from conception to commercialization, workforce development, and business growth. He joined the faculty of the Price College of Business in 2019, creating and teaching the course “Entrepreneurship for Science and Technology.” Before founding the I-Hub and associated programs, Wavering was vice president of strategic technologies for Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI). Before IAI, he was vice president of technology development for Luna Innovations and held various technology management positions. He started with Luna Innovations as a principal investigator on more than 30 R&D programs and has six patents. Wavering received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering, as well as a minor in creative writing from Virginia Tech.
Professor of Entrepreneurship
Michael F. Price Chair in Entrepreneurship and Economic Development
Matthew Wood’s research and teaching interest include a cognitive approach to understanding how entrepreneurs evaluate new venture opportunities, understanding the nature and emergence of opportunities, and identifying the drivers of entrepreneurial action. His research has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Small Business Economics. He was an editor at the Journal of Business Venturing and serves on the editorial review boards of several leading journals. He is a representee-at-large for the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management. He received his Ph.D. in business administration from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and MBA from Bradley University. Before becoming a professor, he was an entrepreneur in the commercial printing industry.
Entrepreneur in Residence
Sean Akadiri is the founder, president, and CEO of Agric-Bioformatics, Inc., a data analytics company in Oklahoma City. He is an ag-tech entrepreneur passionate about using data analytics to improve the performance and productivity of livestock. He has over 15 years of experience in the biotech and life science industries and is on the advisory board for the Moore Norman Technology Center’s Biotechnology Program. He and his team developed AgBoost, a proprietary data-driven analytical tool used by livestock producers across the U.S. and around the world to make selective breeding, management, and marketing decisions for animals using data about genetics, performance, health, and nutrition data. He received a bachelor's degree in biology and a minor in chemistry from East Central University and earned an MBA from Mid-America Christian University. He also attended the University of Oklahoma Gallogly College of Engineering for three years, studying chemical engineering.
Entrepreneur in Residence
From startups to Fortune 250 companies, Pam Battle has had the privilege of establishing, leading, and growing businesses for over 20 years. Her first entrepreneurial venture was opening a retail store in the San Francisco Bay area. Since that time, she has been involved with startups in software development and financial services, leading to her current position as director of development for Bergen Enterprises, a local Norman company with new ventures in sustainability. She is passionate about developing sustainable solutions for her community and thrives on fostering business growth. Throughout her career, she has connected people with their goals with the belief that collaboration, vision, and execution can create amazing results.
Senior Entrepreneur in Residence
Mike Beckham graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oklahoma Price College of Business and Honors College in May 2003. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance. He has served in an adjunct capacity at the University of Oklahoma and is a senior entrepreneur in residence for the Tom Love Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. In 2009, he was a part of the founding team for an online auction business called QuiBids, where he served as chief analytics officer and then chief operating officer and helped lead the company to nearly $800 million in cumulative revenue. From 2015 to present, Beckham has served as a co-founder and CEO of Simple Modern, a global producer of premium drinkware and lifestyle products.
Entrepreneur in Residence
Kristin Garcia serves as the strategic development and operations director of The Verge OKC, a 501(c)(3), that connects the rising entrepreneurial community to the people and resources they need to progress their vision, helping transform great ideas into impactful businesses. She formerly served as the startup specialist for the Francis Tuttle Technology Center AXIS Programs and created a pre-accelerator. Prior roles include working at the University of Oklahoma's Tom Love Innovation Hub, where she managed the Code Lab and supported startup program development, and Purepost, a tech startup focused on solving veteran hiring problems. With over 15 years in higher education and startup experience in Oklahoma, Texas and California, she is focused on business and startup development and growth for the Oklahoma City metro. She earned a master's degree in organizational development from the University of the Incarnate Word, a professional and executive coaching certification from the University of Dallas, and a bachelor's degree from OU's Price College of Business. She serves as coordinator of Oklahoma's Global Entrepreneurship Week, a member of the organizing team for 1 Million Cups Oklahoma City, an adjunct for OU's Tom Love Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, and a former board member of Techlahoma.
Entrepreneur in Residence
Andy Moore founded Let's Fix This in 2016 as a grassroots effort to get regular, everyday people involved in politics. He is a licensed professional counselor who believes that taking the time to listen and build relationships with elected officials and between neighbors will pave the way to a better Oklahoma. In addition to his role with Let's Fix This, Moore is the executive director for Freedom of Information Oklahoma and People Not Politicians. He serves on the board of directors for the Oklahoma AIDS Care Fund and the local board for Generation Citizen. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in marriage and family therapy from Southern Nazarene University, as well as an MBA from the University of Oklahoma. He lives in Oklahoma City with his wife and has three fantastic kids and a smattering of pets. When he unexpectedly finds some spare time, he enjoys exploring the outdoors, gardening, running, cycling, eating tacos, and listening to live music.
Senior Entrepreneur in Residence
Craig Shimasaki is co-founder and CEO of Moleculera Labs, a neuroimmunology diagnostic laboratory focused on neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders triggered by autoimmune response, based upon the research of Madeleine Cunningham, Ph.D., at the University of Oklahoma. He has over 35 years of biotechnology industry experience, starting his career at Genentech. His research and development work include epitope mapping for an HIV vaccine, SNP-based genetic breast cancer risk prediction biomarkers, a rapid influenza diagnostic, and therapeutic and biologic products for infectious and neuropsychiatric diseases. He has co-founded nine companies led five clinical diagnostic tests through FDA 510(k) approval, and is a co-inventor on several patents. He was involved in raising over $30 million for these companies and participated in taking five companies public in the U.S. and Canadian stock markets. He received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of California at Davis, a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Tulsa, and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business. He is an adjunct professor at the OU’s Price College of Business and teaches biotechnology entrepreneurship. He has authored and edited two books, “The Business of Bioscience: What Goes Into Making a Biotechnology Product” and “Biotechnology Entrepreneurship: Starting, Managing and Leading Biotech Companies.” His passion is to help translate scientific and medical discoveries into acutely needed products so more patients can live healthier lives.
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