Harold P. Welsch, Ph.D., who holds the Coleman Foundation Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship at DePaul University, has been active in entrepreneurship development for over 30 years in his role as educator,consultant, researcher, entrepreneur, author, and editor.
Dr. Welsch is well known for his expertise in entrepreneurship education, gestation patterns, privatization, technology commercialization, entrepreneurship career paths, formal and informal strategic planning, information seeking and decision behavior, ethnic entrepreneurship, economic development, and small business problems. Dr. Welsch’s work has appeared in many publications including the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, Journal of High Technology Management Research, International Small Business Journal, Journal of Small Business Management, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Revue International PME, Research in Entrepreneurship, Group and
Organization Studies, Internationales Gewerbe Archiv, and Human Relations. His recent books include Strategic Entrepreneurial Growth (2nd ed.) by Thomson/South Western, Entrepreneurship The Way Ahead by Routledge and The Strategy of Entrepreneurship (in Chinese) by Thomson.
In his position as founder/director of the internationally acclaimed Entrepreneurship Program and the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at DePaul University, Dr. Welsch has served as Chairman of the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division, president of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), and president of the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, the International Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Change, Small
Business Forum, the Journal of Small Business Management, Family Business Review. Dr. Welsch serves on various boards of directors, and consults for both large and small firms. He is a principal of Devon Enterprises, a real estate investment and management firm.
His work carries him throughout the world in his efforts to promote entrepreneurship development and education. He received a doctorate in Humane Letters from Estonian-American University for his work in introducing entrepreneurship in Estonia. He was instrumental in establishing Small Business Development Centers in Poland and served in a pilot program to establish an MBA program in Prague, Czech Republic. Dr. Welsch was awarded the Harold Washington Community Service Award for his economic development efforts in Chicago’s neighborhoods, and serves as Director of the Small Business Institute and on the Executive Committee of the MIT Enterprise Forum. He has served as a national judge for several prestigious entrepreneurial awards including The Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative’s Entrepreneur of
the Year Award sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Connecticut Mutual Insurance Company, and KPMG’s Hi-Tech Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Dr. Welsch has received grants from the Coleman Foundation, the Booz-Allen-Hamilton Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Commonwealth Edison, the U.S. Department of Transportation, United States Information Agency (USIA), and Argonne National Laboratories.
Dr. Welsch received his Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.