I am a recognized leader in technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and higher education.
My technology expertise includes software, and nanotechnology. Over the years, I have developed numerous business plans, strategic plans, and financial models for new and existing enterprises. I have significant experience in book and software publishing, restaurant operations, and family business.
Over the last decade, I've been a director and chairman of the board of a public nanotechnology company. During 2013 and 2014, I led a successful merger with another nano company, creating a new public entity, PEN Inc, whose stock call sign is PENC. I remain a director of the new company.
More lately, I have developed an industry expertise in fine art, specifically printmaking. After playing tennis for five decades, I am giving back by organizing tennis instruction for children and coaching emerging tennis players about tennis strategy, particularly focusing on the mental aspects of the game.
More than once I’ve been told I’m over-educated. I hold an undergraduate degree in history from the University of California at Berkeley, a Masters Degree from the University of Oregon at Eugene, and a doctorate from Harvard University (1975) in International Business and the Management of Technology.
Given my academic background, I started my career as an Assistant Professor of Management at Babson College where I served from 1975 to 1986. During that time, I was promoted to Associate Professor and awarded tenure. At Babson I was one of several individuals responsible for developing their entrepreneurship program. I contributed to this development as the College’s Director of Planning, Department Chairman, and professor in charge of entrepreneurship course development…that is to say the academic side of the School’s entrepreneurship program. My work led to an undergraduate major and an MBA concentration in entrepreneurship. In1985, I was honored to receive the Leavey Prize for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education for my work in entrepreneurship at Babson.
In 1986, I did the unthinkable, at least according to many of my colleagues. I gave up tenure to run a high growth, angel-funded software company. For over a decade, I served as CEO and Chairman of the Board for Lord Publishing, Inc. The company’s anchor product was Ronstadt’s Financials, which won a number of awards for helping small business owners to produce customized financial models for their ventures.
Later, in Southern California, I became a founding board member for a non-profit enterprise, The Southern California Economic Alliance, and a board member for the Orange County Venture Network. During that time, I also served as Pepperdine University’s first Professor of Entrepreneurship where I taught executive MBAs in entrepreneurship and technology management with a strong international business focus which included taking mid-career managers to Japan, Korea, and China on a number of occasions.
From 1997 to 2002, I was the Director of the prestigious IC2 Institute at the University of Texas in Austin where I was also the C. Marion West Professor of Constructive Capitalism. I remain a Fellow of the IC2 Institute, which is a unique 38 year-old “think & do” tank with “hands-on” involvement in business incubation, regional economic development, technology commercialization, and innovative education. As its third Director, I expanded the number of IC2 Fellows from 80 to 230 distinguished scientists, business leaders, and government officials located around the world. Together we pursued a variety of commercialization programs in the United States and abroad. Under my leadership, the Institute also developed an innovative Masters Program in Technology Commercialization. The Austin Technology Incubator, one of the nation’s most successful incubators, was also created by IC2. Its director reported to me.
In 2003, I became Vice President of Boston University and the founding Director of BU’s Technology Commercialization Institute. At BU, I was responsible for integrating over 20 programs that facilitated the movement of technology from over 1000 labs at Boston University into the marketplace. Licensing and venture capital operations reported to me, and as such I oversaw seed and first round investments in new technology enterprises in the physical and life sciences.
During 2013 and 2014, I was heavily involved in orchestrating the merger of two nanotechnology companies. Earlier, in 2009 I was elected Chairman of the Board of Applied Nanotech Holdings, Inc., a public company that created nano-based technologies for sensors, nanoelectronics, and nanomaterials. From May of 2013 through August of 2014, I helped lead the merger of Applied Nanotech with another nanotech company to form PEN Inc, a new public entity (PENC) dedicated to enhancing products with nanotechnology to create breakthrough products emphasizing greater safety, improved health, and greater resource sustainability. See http://www.pen-technology.com/
During my career, I have developed strong writing and editing skills. I’ve published many business articles, case studies, and several books, including, Research and Development Abroad by U.S. Multinationals; The Art of Case Analysis, Entrepreneurship: Case, Text, & Note; and Entrepreneurial Finance. My latest books focus on higher education. They are Ronstadt’s Paying for College and Surviving the Tuition Travesty: How to Take the Financial Sting Out of Paying for College. I’ve also been a contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education and Forbes.com on higher education issues. I remain a contributing editor to the U.K. publication, Industry and Higher Education. My last article with them explored two entrepreneurship concepts developed by me called, “The Corridor Principle and the Near Failure Syndrome: Two generic concepts with practical value for entrepreneurs.”
Currently, I live in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire with my wife, Rebecca. We had the great fortune to meet in Peru when we were Peace Corps Volunteers during the 1960s. Sounds romantic, doesn’t it. It was. We have two wonderful children and one precious grandchild, Neve Elyse Ronstadt. A few years ago we purchased a small but influential newspaper, The Journal of the Print World, which educates collectors, museum curators, gallery owners, and others around the world about works of fine art on paper.
Over the last few years, I’ve launched a budding career as an organizer of children’s tennis, a writer about tennis legends for Tennis View Magazine, and as a coach to older, more accomplished tennis players seeking to improve by incorporating strategic and mental aspects of the game. After playing tennis competitively for most of my life, I cofounded and became President of the Lakes Region Tennis Association which fosters the teaching of tennis to children in various communities surrounding Lake Winnisquam and Lake Winnipesauke. Lakes Region Tennis Association is now a 501(C) (3) tax exempt non-profit organization that has introduced “the game for a lifetime” to hundreds of children, mainly 10 & Under. See www.lakesregiontennis.org
Copyright 2014 Robert Ronstadt. All rights reserved.