Professor Steven Rogers, Director of the Larry & Carol Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice

Welcome from the Director

The Kellogg School Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program, managed by the Larry and Carol Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice, repeatedly has been recognized among the best in the country by Success magazine’s Top 25 and Entrepreneur magazine’s Top 50 lists. The program is devoted to developing the next generation of high-growth entrepreneurs by giving students the theoretical and practical tools, networking opportunities and hands-on experience necessary to maximize their chances for success. The ideal by-products of their entrepreneurial ventures are job creation for others and wealth creation for their employees, investors and themselves.

The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program is a popular discipline at the Kellogg School. The number of course offerings, course subjects (29 that qualify for the major) and professors (12) have increased steadily in response to student interest. More than 75 percent of Kellogg students take at least one entrepreneurship course and more than 10 percent complete the entrepreneurship major. Our entrepreneurship classes, usually filled to capacity, are taught by outstanding faculty--former entrepreneurs, advisers to entrepreneurs and venture capitalists--who combine theory with practical application. They have received numerous national awards and honors from institutions such as BusinessWeek, Fortune and Ernst & Young.

The Kellogg School was one of the first schools to receive an entrepreneur internship grant from the Kauffman Foundation. Since 1996, Entrepreneur Interns spend a summer working side-by-side with successful entrepreneurs. In 2004, a separate private equity internship program was set up. Our students receive additional experiential learning by working with entrepreneurs to help them solve problems through our independent study offering and from the Kellogg Entrepreneur Organization (KEO), a support organization for students who are present or former entrepreneurs.

Kellogg School entrepreneurship students have won the National Miller Brewing Business Plan Contest, the National Entrepreneur Case Writing Competition at Wake Forest University and the International Moot Corp Business Plan Competition at the University of Texas.

In 2004 the Kellogg School Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program held its first-annual Alumni Entrepreneur Conference. It was a sell-out. Hundreds of our alumni who own companies in technology, retailing, construction, manufacturing and other industries returned to campus for a day filled with celebration, networking and continuing education.

The future of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program is as bright as its recent past. In addition to our annual Small Business Job Fair and Entrepreneur Speaker Series, which has featured speakers such as Scott McNealy, co-Founder of Sun Microsystems, we will be offering new classes on sales, entrepreneurship via acquisitions and intrapreneurship. We continually strive, with the support of the deans and alumni to make our program the absolute best in the world.