IIT Stuart Entrepreneurship Academy Managing Director Nik Rokop

IIT Stuart Entrepreneurship Academy Managing Director Nik Rokop

Interview with the IIT Stuart Entrepreneurship Academy

IIT Stuart Entrepreneurship Academy

Although his office is located within the newer University Technology Park at IIT Complex of buildings, Nik Rokop recalls a much earlier IIT when he considers the university's legacy of entrepreneurship. He says it all began - well, in the beginning - after IIT was founded following a spirited call to action in the "Million Dollar Sermon" of 1890.

"IIT was formed by an entrepreneur [Philip Danforth] Armour, and I would even say [Frank Wakely] Gunsaulus, who changed careers from preaching at the pulpit to becoming the university's first president," says Rokop, managing director of the IIT Stuart School of Business Jules F. Knapp Entrepreneurship Academy. "The way the university grew over the years - from the merger of Armour Institute with Lewis Institute, and, for example, the addition of the School of Design and Chicago-Kent College of Law - is much like how entrepreneurs work, bringing in smaller entities to build a large one. Many companies go through this kind of growth to later become a fairly substantial enterprise."

Rokop's desk is as orderly as are the manila project folders that hold still more organized flowcharts and notes on the many entrepreneurial endeavors taking place at IIT, including one of the newest, the IIT Stuart School of Business Entrepreneurship Academy. Rokop is managing director of the academy, which is under the leadership of Executive Director Harvey Kahalas, IIT Stuart Dean.

"The Entpreneurship Academy is a university-wide initiative designed to advance the spirit and understanding of entrepreneurship across the campus," says Kahalas, "and to promote innovation and excellence as set forth by IIT's Many Voices, One Vision strategic plan. As such, one of our priorities will be to build a formal support system to help students, faculty and alumni innovate new ideas and successfully take their ideas to the marketplace

Students enrolled in Stuart's graduate finance program have the opportunity to hear entrepreneurs present their ideas in a course taught by Ron Kirschner, a former medical practitioner and successful entrepreneur who is the founder and president of Heartland Angels, a prominent Midwest angel investor group. John F.O. Bilson, professor of finance and director of Stuart's finance and mathematical finance programs, says that students learn a broad spectrum of skills that are useful to successful entrepreneurs.

"The students are required to evaluate the proposal based upon such characteristics as ethics, leadership, and creativity, and make a recommendation for funding," Bilson explains, noting that this course and another entitled Entrepreneurial Finance provide students with quantitative and qualitative learning experiences, "IIT Stuart firmly believes that the two-course combination provides our students with the correct composite of academic excellence and real-world application that is characteristic of the business programs we offer."

Interview also featured in the Winter 2011 issue of IIT Magazine.

Learn more about the IIT Stuart Entrepreneurship Academy in the latest IIT Stuart Dean's Annual Report (pdf)

Smriti Anand joined the IIT Stuart School of Business as an Assistant Professor of Management in August 2011. Her research focuses on leadership, customized work arrangements, and diversity. Her research has been published in leading management journals, such as the Academy of Management Journal and the Journal of Applied Psychology. As a doctoral student she has taught courses in organizational behavior, diversity, and organizational development. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked for approximately 10 years at Information Resources, Inc. and Motorola, Inc. as a software engineer and a product manager. Anand was also recently awarded a prestigious research grant from GMAC/MerInstitute. The proposed research is an extension of her dissertation, and examines idiosyncratic employment arrangements negotiated by new MBA graduates.