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Experience defines UH business program

Student entrepreneurs turn ideas into thriving realities

By Jennifer Brzowski
The Daily Cougar

The students are diverse, talented and passionate. Alumni and faculty members own businesses, lead their communities and rattle off million-dollar figures as if they were giving their phone numbers.

The program is the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, founded in 1993 in the Bauer College of Business and ranked in the first tier of Entrepreneur magazineis top 50 regional entrepreneurial colleges.

Bill Sherrill, the programis director and co-chairman, said the CEIis primary focus is teaching students "the ability to take an idea, turn it into a business, and then manage a rapidly growing business. What we try to do is to train across the spectrum from the viewpoint of a CEO."

Students interested in the program initially enroll in a course open to all majors. Those who want to pursue a major in entrepreneurship then apply to become part of CEI, which selects 40 new students each year.

"Each student who applies for the program is interviewed, and there are two major criteria: one, whether (the committee) thinks the students will succeed, and two, if they think (the student) will be happy when they succeed," Sherrill said.

The selected students go on to the full program of academic and hands-on training, which includes courses in revenue, cost, capital and business-plan creation and implementation. The hands-on aspects are the programis trademark.

"The professors are businessmen, and then theyire teachers," said senior Matteo Reginato, who in the past year has been top-ranked in business competitions across the country with his partner, Amy Tabor. "Youire not stuck in a book. Everything is pretty much real-world experience."

That real-world experience includes retreats, a distinguished speaker series, interaction with established businesspeople, one-on-one mentoring with entrepreneurs who match studentsi interests and BurgerFest. At BurgerFest, a two-day event on campus, students create a formal business plan and see to all the details of running a retail hamburger stand.

"This was one of those programs where you actually feel like youire getting prepared to enter the field youire getting into," said Carlos Buchanan, a 1995 graduate and the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Buchanan Ventures, an investment banking corporation.

"We felt like we were ready to go out and tackle the world, instead of (gaining) just a general perspective -- ‘You got a business degree. Now what?i" Buchanan, who was the CEI program manager from 1995-98, said.

Buchananis sentiments ring true. Thirty-eight percent of CEI graduates enter entrepreneurial ventures after graduation, and 40 percent join entrepreneurial firms.

"(Our corporation is) structuring ventures to the tune of $200 million, and I didnit go to Harvard, and I didnit go to Georgetown or Yale ... but everybody else I see at this level did," Buchanan said. "You (receive) a business education equivalent to the top five programs in the U.S."

Buchanan called CEI one of the most important programs at UH because its graduates can become successful in business, then give back to the University.

"Itis a very small program, but itis getting bigger. Youire going to see great things from those 40 students that go through every year," Buchanan said. "And I promise when I get my jet, Iill put ‘UHi on the side."

For more information on CEI, call (713) 743-4752.
 

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