Sankaran Venkataraman
MasterCard Professor of Business AdministrationEntrepreneurship Is About More Than Starting a BusinessSankaran Venkataraman sees entrepreneurship as a force for change. As the MasterCard Professor of Business Administration and research director for entrepreneurship at the Batten Institute, Mr. Venkataraman's responsibilities include raising the visibility of entrepreneurship throughout the Darden School of Business. Over the years, his research focus has shifted from the challenges entrepreneurs face in creating new firms to business founders and their environments. "You can't just look at the traits of entrepreneurs apart from the entrepreneurial opportunities they pursue," he said. "You can't think about Wal-Mart separately from Sam Walton, and you can't think about Sam Walton separately from Wal-Mart." Most recently, he has studied entrepreneurship and its impact on emerging regions, both at home and abroad. In regions where the support systems for entrepreneurship are underdeveloped, only the strongest survive. But in places such as the Silicon Valley [California], Dublin [Ireland], Bangalore [India], and the Research Triangle [North Carolina], there is a "culture of entrepreneurship in the air" he said, and "anyone with a good idea can get it to market." Since joining Darden in 1998, Mr. Venkataraman has earned the school's "Outstanding Faculty Award" and was voted the "Most Popular Professor" at BusinessWeek Online by Darden students. He also edits the Journal of Business Venturing and advises the U.S. Department of Commerce on promoting entrepreneurship globally. Mr. Venkataraman sees his endowed professorship as both an honor and an opportunity. "A chair is a milestone in a career," he said. "It offers you the opportunity to reflect on what you've done in the past but, more importantly, to think about what you can do in the future. A chair is not so much the resources you get but the opportunity to redirect your energies to some worthy new questions." For Mr. Venkataraman, entrepreneurship is not just about starting a new business; it's part of the solution to society's problems. "Entrepreneurship," he said, "is a means to create the world we aspire to live in." MasterCard Professorship in Business AdministrationThe MasterCard Professorship in Business Administration was established in 2004 with funding from MasterCard International, Inc. The professorship enables a distinguished professor to infuse an entrepreneurial spirit into Darden's curriculum. H. Eugene Lockhart, who helped coordinate the gift while MasterCard's chief executive officer, is a 1974 graduate of the Darden School, past chairman of the Darden Trustees, and past chairman of U.Va.'s Alumni Association. MasterCard is a global payments company and an advocate for initiatives to help young consumers develop sound money management skills. ChairholdersSankaran Venkataraman 2004–present Web LinksTransforming a Region into a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Economy: How to Create the Multiplier Effect |