A Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, 10 years in the making, is nearing completion.
Sponsored by ETSU’s colleges of Business and Applied Science and Technology, and supported by communities throughout the region, the new venture will develop business opportunities and endeavor to keep the best students and ideas from leaving the area.
The former United States Marine Corps Reserve Center, recently acquired by ETSU, will house the center within its 14,000 square feet, once renovation is complete.
Located along the medical-technical corridor, the facility will contain two “smart” classrooms able to support wireless communication and distance learning. A mock boardroom will allow mentors and teachers in the classroom to meet through regional or even worldwide connections with entrepreneurs living far away presenting business proposals for evaluation.
Future additions will include space on the nearby grounds of the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mountain Home, offering a place for development of biomedical research ideas. The city governments of Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, and Greeneville, among others, have indicated their interest and support.
ETSU’s Dr. Andy Czuchry, holder of the AFG Industries Chair of Excellence in Business and Technology, is overseeing the center, and will be joined by two new faculty members, one each provided by Business and Applied Science and Technology.
The Center for Entrepreneur-ial Leadership will partner with a number of component organizations.
The center will coordinate a business incubator where carefully selected new businesses will be nurtured for three to five years, until they are judged ready for “graduation.”
The center hopes to be ready to admit the first two enterprises to the business incubator in August.
A new graduate level program, a certificate in entrepreneurial leadership, will be offered through the center. Although the program works well in connection with master of business administration or master of technology degrees, students do not have to be enrolled in those programs.
The ETSU International Entrepreneurship Program will link similar centers around the world having compatible technology with the local center. German institutes in Bremen and Munich with business incubators are being developed as partners and resources.
The Tennessee Small Business Development Center, now in operation at ETSU, will support the new center. The TSBDC regional office was established at ETSU in 1984 as part of a statewide, university-based re-source partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration to improve the growth and development of small businesses.
Also supporting the center will be the ETSU Bureau of Business and Economic Research, dedicated to the region’s economic development by offering applied research studies, fostering programs, coordinating regional efforts, ensuring a qualified labor force, and reporting the latest market conditions and trends.
The ETSU James H. Quillen College of Medicine will be a strong partner, promoting technology-driven biotechnology, information technology and digital media companies.

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