The Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub, an initiative to support innovation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has appointed Lewis Sheats as its inaugural executive director and associate vice chancellor.
Sheats will take on his new role on 2 February. He will join from Saint Louis University, where he has spent the last four years as the executive director of the Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship.
First announced in 2024, the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub will offer a hub-and-spoke model to drive entrepreneurial activities across the institution.
Its first programme, the Badger Tech Foundry, was launched in November to help early-career researchers become serial entrepreneurs. It is also due to absorb two existing intiaitives, Discovery to Product and Innovate Network.
“What has always motivated me is helping people build something of their own. Universities are powerful places for ideas to grow, and UW–Madison has a remarkable history of bringing big ideas to life.
“I’m looking forward to building partnerships on campus and across the state to help foster an environment where more people can confidently pursue entrepreneurial paths.”
Lewis Sheats
Sheats has spent three decades in entrepreneurship
Sheats will be tasked with developing and delivering a strategic plan, building partnerships with industry and regional organisations, and bringing together schools, colleges, and centres across campus.
He will also lead the implementation of a campuswide strategy to position entrepreneurship as a career path for faculty, staff, and students.
He previously spent nearly two decades with North Carolina State University as associate vice provost and associate professor from 2003 until 2021, building undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship programmes.
From 2014 onwards, he also served as executive director of the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic, which he launched.
Earlier in his career, Sheats founded and led multiple companies, including assisted living medication delivery service Interstate Logistics, which he bootstrapped in 1996, growing the business across three US states, before succesfully exiting in 2006.
UW-Madison is recognised as the first university in the world to launch a technology transfer arm, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Learn more about WARF in a two-part series on The Next Leap podcast.
